MOLECULAR MEDICINE MADE EASY IN POETRY

by PROF DR NOR HAYATI OTHMAN

This is the era of molecular medicine If you are not in it, you are out of fashion Every disease now has genetic notion From colo-rectal cancers to disturbed emotion

Everyone is talking about DNA Which could be obtained from victim or prey Policemen, judges, fear we allay We will get the culprit who is astray

Who have not heard of Jurassic Park? The famous movie that scored a high mark Mosquitoes, elephants, man or macaque We can get your DNA in daylight or dark!

Molecular medicine is the in-thing The terms used are sometimes confusing Consensus sequences and alternative splicing Exons, introns are just the beginning

LOH, SSCP, and gene rearrangement Upstream, downstream and cellular disjunction When the offspring get it, is it’s germline mutation When the bases are deleted, it’s frameshift mutation

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The nucleus of a cell is the basic structure It is present in every creature Located deep within the chromosome The identity of a person is his genome

Missense, nonsense are no nonsense Arrangements of codons is what they sense Good and bad proteins get cleansed For the cell to grow, regulation is intense

The cellular growth has many phases Chromosomes migrate in telophases At the end of chromosomes there are telomeres The length of which can indicate disasters

There is this term called ‘tandem repeats’ Triplet series of nucleotide beats Scientists use the ‘ORF’ information To locate the area of protein translation

There are many more genetic jargons ‘Hotspots’,’ immortalization’ and ‘genetic penetrance’ ‘Enhancer elements’ and ‘elongation’ To lay people they could mean flirtation!

Clinical applications of molecular pathology Impossible to list, as they are too many Neoplastic processes or diseases of kidney With genetic splices, we can tell the story

PCR technique is now in prime Scientists prefer this method anytime Do it in-situ or do it in real-time The gist is, PCR is sublime

It does not matter what is your clan Be you Chinese, Indian or children of Anne Race is not seen in your genetic plan The differences you see are only in your mind!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Prof. Dr. Nor Hayati Othman is the Dean of Clinical Science Research at Universiti

Sains Malaysia. She can be contacted at: hayati@kb.usm.my

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