Disease is often a build-up of symptoms that are caused by a single or group of malfunctioning cells. In diabetics, insulin cells are dysfunctional or not present and no glucose is allowed into the cells. With no glucose, ATP, the energy created by mitochondria and used throughout the body, cannot be created. The most promising clinical research today is focusing on discovering these minute defects and treating them with similarly minute treatments.
In molecular biology the most important piece of information comes directly from the blood or other bodily fluids, residues and growths such as hair. That's right, we're talking about DNA and genetics. Every persons genetic code can disclose a wealth of information but right now that information is so massively overwhelming in size that only a small portion of code and its effects are known. The actual amount of code imbedded into DNA would be surprisingly small if converted into computer bits, but the way the body decodes this information provides for its complexity. Clinical research is progressing in its understanding of how the body decodes these seemingly random and often useless bits of information.
To test a small batch of DNA the sample first has to be amplified using a process call polymerase chain reaction or PCR. PCR increases the amount of DNA in the sample by using the body's natural process for duplicating DNA in the body only this is done in a test tube. A specific portion of the DNA is selected for amplification, this is often where a specific gene is located that the researchers know is related to the condition they are looking for. There are no comprehensive tests yet, each gene has to be specifically looked for making this a difficult process.
Once the target section has been specified a mixture that includes DNA polymerase is added which when repeatedly heated and cooled copies the targeted section of DNA thousands of times created ample material to work with. Once there is ample test material the DNA is put into an electrified agarose gel which acts like a filter, only allowing small sized segments to proceed through it before it slowly stops them. If the targeted gene is in the DNA it will stop at a certain point in the gel and can be compared with known samples to determine if the gene is there or not. Discovering these genes allows clinical research to find suitable treatments as well as discovering how these molecules interact with each other.
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