Genetics and Molecular Biology Terms

A protein on the surface of some cells that binds to stem cell factor (a substance that causes certain types of cells to grow).

A protein that is made by many different types of cells and is involved in processes that take place both inside and outside of the cell.

A protein that is made by many different types of cells and is involved in processes that take place both inside and outside of the cell.

A protein being studied in the treatment of cancer.

A protein found on the surface of some bone marrow and blood cells.

Most cells in the body are not in the cycle at all, so the interesting question is what pulls them back into it.

How one fertilized egg becomes hundreds of cell types without changing its genes, and the yardstick a pathologist uses to grade a tumor.

Cells cannot see each other, so everything they coordinate has to travel as a molecule, a touch, or a direct electrical link.

Packaging is the point, since the DNA in one cell would stretch about two meters and chromosomes fold it to fit inside a nucleus.

One of a group of about 20 proteins that is found in the blood and is important in fighting infections and other diseases.

A molecule made up of two or more different kinds of small molecules called monomers.

An enzyme that speeds up the formation of substances that cause inflammation and pain.

An enzyme that speeds up the formation of substances that cause inflammation and pain.

A protein on the surface of certain cells that binds another protein called TRAIL, which may kill some cancer cells.

A protein on the surface of certain cells that binds another protein called TRAIL, which may kill some cancer cells.

The full chemical name of DNA, and it is descriptive: a sugar missing an oxygen, a nucleus, and an acid.

Two meters of it are packed into a cell too small to see, arranged so any short stretch can still be found and read.

A process that allows thousands of pieces of DNA that are fixed to a glass slide to be analyzed at one time.

The enzyme that writes chemical tags onto DNA, and then copies that pattern into every new cell.

An enzyme (a protein that speeds up chemical reactions in the body) that attaches a methyl group to DNA.