You are now at the neurula stage! This is a very important point in your long developing life. Your cells are now beginning to fold and thicken, forming the neural tube, which will become your brain and spine!

Every animal with a nervous system - including humans - will have this stage in their early development.

Sequencing

Frederick Sanger

Frederick Sanger is one of only two Scientists to have won the Noble Prize twice – for discovering the structure of Insulin and for developing a method for reading DNA code, known as “sanger sequencing”.

Sanger’s work has allowed us to sequence the genomes of a number of species including humans, looking for changes and similarities between genes and identifying the genetic basis of disease.

Nowadays, The Wellcome Sanger Institute just outside of Cambridge specialises in using DNA sequencing to answer a huge range of biological questions.

Bioinformatics

Special proteins called Transcription Factors bind to specific sections of DNA to turn genes on and off. The image shows the patterns that the protein Nrf2 is able to bind too - taken from the JASPAR Database.

Building on Sanger’s work, scientists have created new methods that allow us to read larger sections of DNA and even the whole genome ( an organism's complete DNA sequence!). These new methods produce a huge amount of information and we now need to use super computers to analyse all this data – known as bioinformatics.

At the Gurdon institute, we use bioinformatics to find out how genes function by analysing sequencing data from model organisms or cell lines. This can show us how different genes have been effected in our experiments.

We can use this information to help us work out when/how certain genes are turned on and off or if they have any mutations that effect how they work.

  • Wings outstretched

    An entrance I guard.

    can you find me?

    It shouldn’t be hard!

  • Above the entrance of St John’s College, a huge bird stands over the door. Can you find it? What kind of bird is it?

*Remember to start your answer with a Capital letter.

“Through art and science in their broadest senses it is possible to make a permanent contribution towards the improvement and enrichment of human life”

— Frederic Sanger, Nobel Prize Speech, 1980.