To the Dutch versionDNA Mystery Unraveled
Cees Dekker is in his element. He is a professor of molecular biophysics at TU Delft. Together with a team of Dutch and foreign scientists, he has solved a biological puzzle: how our genes are packaged in our cells.
In each of the thousands of billions of cells in the human body, there are two meters of DNA. It was already known that the so-called condensin protein packages the DNA into tiny bundles. Now it is finally clear how the protein does this: by hooking the DNA strand into loops and thus keeping it together. "We have seen it with our own eyes," says Dekker enthusiastically.
Copying DNA
The scientific breakthrough could possibly help in the fight against such congenital conditions. "Now that the new puzzle piece is in place, we can continue to explore how conditions like these can be precisely caused. The next step is how to address that in the long run," says Dekker.
3.5 billion years old
He explains that condensin is a very old protein. It is present in bacteria that existed 3.5 billion years ago. Earlier, the group of scientists finally discovered how the protein works when copying DNA. A month later, Dekker submitted his paper to the renowned journal.