“but perhaps within the next five to ten years, certain inborn errors . . . will be treated or cured by the administration of a… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“Like the master score of a bewitchingly complex symphonic work, the genome contains the instructions for the development and maintenance of organisms.… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“It was a Rube Goldberg disease. A change in the sequence of a gene caused the change in the sequence of a… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“Our knowledge of… molecular defects in cancer has come from a dedicated twenty years of the best molecular biology research. Yet this… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“The experiments progress slowly," Mendel wrote. "At first a certain amount of patience was needed, but I soon found that matters went… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“Six decades and two years, no more than a passing glance of time, separate Mendel's initial experiments on peas and the court-mandated… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“Morgan had discovered an important modification to Mendel's laws. Genes did not travel separately; instead, they moved in packs. Packets of information… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“The drive to change the genome of a human embryo has turned into an intercontinental arms race. As of this writing, four… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“The real key to human gene mapping, Botstein had realized, was not finding the gene, but finding the humans. If a large-enough… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“It is encrusted with history. Embedded within it are peculiar fragments of DNA-some derived from ancient viruses-that were inserted into the genome… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“Every genetic “illness” is a mismatch between an organism’s genome and its environment. In some cases, the appropriate medical intervention to mitigate… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“It is fiercely inventive. It squeezes complexity out of simplicity. It orchestrates the activation or repression of certain genes in only certain… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“It is the form of hemoglobin, then, that permits its function. The physical structure of the molecule enables its chemical nature, the… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“In 1957, Pardee, Monod, and Jacob discovered that the lactose operon was controlled by a single master switch-a protein eventually called the… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“It is a testament to the unsettling beauty of the genome that it can make the real world “stick.” Our genes do… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“But perhaps an even greater principle was at stake, Bateson realized. The flow of biological information was not restricted to heredity. It… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“One of the four genes used by Yamanaka to reverse cellular fate is called c-myc. Myc, the rejuvenating factor, is no ordinary… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“By the end of this decade, permutations and combinations of genetic variants will be used to predict variations in human phenotype, illness,… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“A note of caution: epigenetics is also on the verge of transforming into a dangerous idea. Epigenetic modifications of genes can potentially… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“The helix contains two intertwined strands of DNA. It is "right-handed"-twisting upward as if driven by a right-handed screw. Across the molecule,… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“The gene responsible for creating white eyes (called white eyed), for instance, was inescapably linked to maleness: no matter how Morgan crossed… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“In the late 1970s, scientists working on gene-silencing discovered that the attachment of a small molecule-a methyl group-to DNA was correlated with… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“Although we fully understand the genetic code-i.e., how the information in a single gene is used to build a protein-we comprehend virtually… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“The fact that the genome also encodes genes to repair damage to the genome was discovered by several geneticists, including Evelyn Witkin… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“The Book of Man (in Twenty-Three Volumes) It has 3,088,286,401 letters of DNA (give or take a few). Published as a book… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
Most days, I go home and I feel rejuvenated. I feel ebullient. — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“A note of caution: epigenetics is also on the verge of transforming into a dangerous idea. Epigenetic modifications of genes can potentially superpose historical… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
When you immerse yourself in medicine you realise that hope is not absolute. It's not that simple. — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“I had a novice's hunger for history, but also a novice's inability to envision it.” — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“Any extrapolation of history into the future presupposes an environment of static discovery—an oxymoron.” — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“Six decades and two years, no more than a passing glance of time, separate Mendel's initial experiments on peas and the court-mandated sterilization of… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“We now know that cells have ancient detectors that recognize viral genes and stamp them with chemical marks, like cancellation signs, to prevent their… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“Familial schizophrenia (like normal human features such as intelligence and temperament) is thus highly heritable but only moderately inheritable. In other words, genes-hereditary determinants-are… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“If you prefer an “academic life” as a retreat from reality, do not go into biology. This field is for a man or woman… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“But the pigs--seventy pounds of porcine weight that did not take kindly to weekly endoscopies--did not sprout any ulcers. And testing the theory on… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
“One of the four genes used by Yamanaka to reverse cellular fate is called c-myc. Myc, the rejuvenating factor, is no ordinary gene: it… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
A breast cancer might turn out to have a close resemblance to a gastric cancer. And this kind of reorganization of cancer in terms… — Siddhartha Mukherjee Copy Share Image
