Detective work in the laboratory – How scientists track down DNA molecules and proteins

The human genome consists of around 3 billion ‘letters’ strung together. It’s incredible – every single cell contains the entire genome. If you were to pull out the DNA from every cell in the human body as a single strand, it would be 150 billion kilometres long. That would be enough to stretch from the Earth to the Sun about 1,000 times. The ‘text’ of our genome contains a great deal of important information. It is like a huge library of cookery books for the cell, which then uses this information to produce proteins, for example. However, changes to this ‘text’ can sometimes cause cells to become cancerous. To better understand these processes, scientists analyse the significance of these changes.

See for yourself and try out how DNA can be extracted from cells, processed and analysed.

Further information can be found on the website of the Institute of Biochemistry