Life Sciences Commons^™

It’S In Your Genes, Cody Gowan

McNair Scholars Research Journal

There’s a vast misunderstanding of how cells function amongst the general public. Many people understand that our genes are what make us who we are. However, many people don’t understand how. Proteins are the functional units of the cell that allow the genome to express itself. The Central Dogma of biology is that DNA is transcribed to messenger RNA and then translated to protein, and everything about our physical being is a result of how proteins function—from the color of our eyes to life-threatening diseases that we endure, such as cancer. It is this idea (that the function of proteins …