Life and health

Gene expression

Gene expression: the process by which a gene's DNA information is turned into function via transcription to RNA and translation to protein; regulated by transcription factors and epigenetics, and measured by RT-qPCR, microarray, RNA-Seq, and spatial transcriptomics.

Gene expression profiling

Gene expression profiling, also known as expression profiling, is a molecular biology method that measures mRNA levels of many genes at once, using microarrays or RNA sequencing.

Sep 21, 2026

Gene Feder

Gene Feder is a British general practitioner and professor of primary care at the University of Bristol, best known for the IRIS domestic violence program for general practice.

Gene flow

Gene flow, also called gene or allele migration, is the transfer of genetic material between populations through migration and interbreeding. It redistributes alleles, opposes local adaptation, enables speciation with gene flow, and underlies human Neanderthal and Denisovan introgression.

Gene Frequency

Gene frequency (allele frequency) is the proportion of an allele among all gene copies at a locus in a population. Central to population genetics, Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, drift, selection, and modern sequencing databases like gnomAD.

Gene Fusion

Gene fusion: joining of parts of two or more genes into a chimeric gene, occurring naturally (oncogene fusions like BCR-ABL in cancer, up to 17% of solid tumors) or made artificially by recombinant DNA; key targets of precision oncology.

Sep 21, 2026

Gene G. Hunder

Gene G. Hunder is an American rheumatologist and emeritus physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, known for research on giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica.

Gene gun

Gene gun (biolistic particle delivery system): a device firing DNA-coated gold or tungsten microprojectiles into cells, invented by Sanford at Cornell; used for species-independent plant transformation, chloroplast transformation, and DNA-free genome editing.

Sep 21, 2026

Gene H. Stollerman

Gene H. Stollerman (1921–2014) was an American physician and medical researcher known for showing that monthly penicillin injections prevent rheumatic fever, and later a Boston University geriatrics leader.

Gene knockdown

Gene knockdown is a set of laboratory techniques that reduce a specific gene's expression without altering its DNA sequence, most commonly through RNA interference or antisense oligonucleotides.

Gene knockout

Gene knockout: genetic engineering that inactivates or removes specific genes to reveal their function. Methods range from homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells (2007 Nobel) to CRISPR-Cas9 indel disruption.

Gene Library

Gene library: a large collection of cloned DNA fragments from an organism, tissue, or cell type; genomic libraries hold whole-genome fragments, cDNA libraries hold intron-free copies of expressed mRNA; MeSH D015723.

Gene mapping

Gene mapping, also called genetic or genome mapping, establishes where genes and other DNA markers sit on a chromosome or genome, guiding the search for disease genes.

Gene nomenclature

Gene nomenclature: the standardized naming of genes, chiefly by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC), which assigns each human gene a unique symbol, descriptive name, and stable HGNC ID, with about 43,000 approved symbols including roughly 19,000 protein-coding genes.

Oct 20, 2026

Gene Order

Gene order is the sequential location of genes on a chromosome (MeSH D023061). It is non-random in eukaryotes, with co-expressed genes clustered, and its conservation (synteny) versus scrambling underpins comparative genomics and phylogeny reconstruction.

Gene panel testing

Gene panel testing is a diagnostic method that sequences multiple genes associated with a suspected condition, such as cancer or an inherited disease, at once.

Gene Pool

Gene pool: all genes and their alleles in a reproducing population or species, defined by Dobzhansky in 1951. Measured by allele frequencies; changed by mutation, drift, selection, and gene flow; used in crop breeding.

Gene prediction

Gene prediction, also called gene finding, is the computational identification of genes in genomic DNA, using ab initio statistical models or external evidence such as RNA-seq.

Gene product 44

Gene product 44 (gp44) names unrelated phage proteins: Mu's essential baseplate hub trimer, T4's ATPase clamp-loader subunit (gp44/62), A118's recombination directionality factor, and SPO1's DNA mimic inhibiting RNA polymerase.

Gene product 70

Gene product 70 (GP70, Pfam PF17429) is a conserved protein domain family of unknown function found in Mycobacterium phage and Actinobacteria; distinct from the retroviral envelope glycoprotein gp70 of murine leukemia virus.

Gene Rearrangement

Gene rearrangement: somatic reorganization of DNA, chiefly V(D)J recombination, class switch recombination, and somatic hypermutation in lymphocytes, which generate immune receptor diversity and, when erroneous, oncogenic translocations.

Gene regulatory network

Gene regulatory network (GRN): the web of interactions among transcription factors, cis-regulatory elements, and target genes controlling gene expression; studied via Boolean, ODE, Bayesian, and single-cell inference methods.

Gene replacement therapy

Gene replacement therapy delivers a functional copy of a disease-causing gene into a patient's cells, typically via AAV vectors; the first trial was in 1990, and seven AAV products were FDA-approved by 2025.

Gene silencing

Gene silencing: suppression of gene expression at transcriptional (TGS) or post-transcriptional (PTGS) levels without altering DNA. Includes RNAi, antisense, quelling, chromatin silencing; discovered in plants around 1990, mechanistically explained by RNA interference.