title: [50 years after the discovery of the DNA structure its implications still have not reached clinical practice. Our genetic material is "a big tangle of nucleic acids and proteins"].
abstract: It is now 50 years since the double helical structure of DNA was discovered. Even if the knowledge about the DNA structure has had great implications for many disciplines in medical and genetic research, the big breakthrough is still to come in clinical practice. Much research is now focusing on elucidating the regulatory mechanisms controlling the activity and behaviour of the genes of our genome. Many researchers and clinicians are hoping that the tangle of nucleic acids and proteins that fills the cellular nucleus harbours interesting and potential drug targets.
authors.affiliation: Institutionen för medicinsk epidemiologi och biostatistik, Karolinska institutet, Stockholm. ulrika.kahl@mep.ki.se
authors.forename: Ulrika
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kahl
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D036281:Genetic Research / Q000266:history; D015894:Genome, Human; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009613:Nobel Prize; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D004247:DNA