Important BYU research debunks the idea of "junk DNA"

The human body contains approximately 50 trillion cells whose length of DNA content compares to 528 million donuts wrapped around the earth 2,500 times.

Until recently, scientists thought 95 percent of that DNA was junk and had no function. BYU microbiology professor Steven Johnson and one of his undergraduate assistants, Elliot Winters, participated in a worldwide collaborative research project, the ENCODE Projectconcluded 80 percent of a persons DNA does perform an important function.

Its the culmination of this international consortium saying all this DNA that we thought didnt have a function actually has a function or has something going on, Johnson said. We dont know exactly what is going on, but its not just junk that is sitting there with no purpose.

The collaborative research project, the ENCODE Project, provides a database of information to those performing genetic research. The research was published in Genome Research, and Johnson and Winters are listed as co-authors.

[/media-credit] Mentored research provides exceptional opportunities for BYU students

We told them exactly how we wanted the cells prepared, and they sent them to us frozen, Johnson said. I taught my undergraduate student, Elliot Winters, this technique that Id developed. Over a course of about four months, we were able to get it to work just right and isolate just the DNA that we wanted to with the nucleosomes.

Winters is not alone in doing mentored undergraduate research atBYU. According to the BYU website,the university gave $1.4 million to 71 faculty members specifically for projects involving undergraduates. Winters identifies his research experience as one of the most important parts of his BYU education.

The reason I started doing it is because I wanted to strengthen my application for medical school, Winters said. Looking back on it, it was one of the most valuable parts of my education.

Winters is only one of many students Johnson employs in his labs. Colton Kempton, a third-year masters student from Safford, Ariz., is currently working with Johnson on more DNA research related to gene therapy.

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DNA research: Contribution to gene therapy - Important BYU research debunks the idea of "junk DNA"