Diseases that originate from genetic information occur because of a mistake in the coding regions of DNA. Some of these pathologies stem from a minimal variation in the genetic switches that regulate the function of the product of a gene. The therapeutic way to treat these diseases may not be replacing the faulty protein or gene, but a simple shift in conditions that may bring the switch back to normality or prevent it from malfunctioning.
Argentinian fellow Candela Bayon from Instituto de Biologia Molecular y Celular de Rosario went to the Institut de Pharmacologie et Biologie Structurale - IPBS in Toulouse, France, to study the way Single Nucleotide Variations affect the workings of these genetic molecular switches and how cellular conditions affect their expression, to shed some light on the cause and principles of diseases that may come from such regions in the DNA.
We are thankful to her mentors, Drs. Pablo Armas, Sebastien Britton and Dennis Gomez, for accompanying Candela on this path to uncover the workings of DNA's non-canonical structures.
