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Scientists from universities across Europe are celebrating after new methods were successfully trialled which will transform study into DNA sequencing.
The research focused on developing a new laboratory technique to study proteins and it has been hailed as a “new age of discovery” by experts in the field.
A joint paper detailing the research has been published in the international journal Science by universities in Britain, Germany and Spain.
The new method, the Reactome Array, works by locating active proteins in individual microbes or communities of microbes.
It can also highlight energy and biochemical activity within cells and allows scientists to separate new proteins which could be used in every part of life.
It is expected to change the way medicines, technology and agriculture are developed along with the study of DNA sequences.
Co-author of the Science report, Peter Golyshin, Professor of Environmental Genomics at Bangor University, North Wales, said: “To identify the function of the elements that make the DNA sequence, they usually have to be compared to existing databases of known gene function. In a sense, what currently happens is a comparison against already known genes and proteins.”
Prof Golyshin added: “Reactome Array takes a wholly different approach. The technique identifies the whole set of biochemical reactions and, importantly, captures and identifies the proteins actively involved in the cell’s metabolism or energy exchange.”
Copyright Press Association 2009
