• Question: What is your work? Please explain what you do and why it is important?

    Asked by megnog to Kerstin on 16 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Kerstin Zechner

      Kerstin Zechner answered on 17 Mar 2010:

      I look at how genes are expressed as proteins. There are two major steps to this. I look at the first step, when DNA is copied into another, very similar molecule known as RNA. In a later step, this RNA acts as a blueprint to build a protein corresponding to the DNA, but I don’t research this process.
      When a gene encoded in DNA is copied to RNA, the process must stop at the end of a gene. If it didn’t it would just continue copying along the DNA and interfere with the expression of other genes on the DNA. If this happened, the organism wouldn’t survive.
      I think looking at this is important, because it give us a better understanding of how genes actually are efficiently expressed. This kind of background knowledge helps other researchers develop applications in many other areas of research including medical research.

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