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"THE SPLIT STRUCTURE of eukaryotic genes impacts gene expression and evolution in diverse ways. Most directly, the presence of introns enables multiple distinct mRNA and protein products to be produced from the same gene locus through alternative splicing, which is often regulated between tissues or developmental stages." http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001229 View in LinkedIn

CRUCIAL ROLES. "Most human genes are alternatively spliced, allowing the selection of different combinations of exons to produce multiple distinct mRNAs and proteins. Many types of alternative splicing are known to play crucial roles in biological processes including cell fate determination, tumor metabolism, and apoptosis." http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001229 View in LinkedIn

RETINAL HACK. “Optogenetics is also being considered for a new generation of sensory devices, like retinal implants to help people who have lost their vision regain some degree of sight. Today, the Argus II, a retinal implant made by Second Sight, works by transforming a camera feed into electrical impulses. These travel to an implant inside a person’s eye, where they stimulate surviving photoreceptors and pass visual information to the brain.” http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-bright-approach-to-brain-implants-1453480543 View in LinkedIn

HACKING BRAIN GENES. “One of the most promising tools in this regard is a recently developed technique called optogenetics, which hijacks the molecular machinery of the genes found inside every neuron to directly manipulate the brain's circuitry.” http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304914904579435592981780528 View in LinkedIn