For the last entry in our Black History Month series, we’re discussing Emmett Chappelle, the biochemist hired by NASA to develop tests and methods to identify microbial life on the surface of Mars. Of course, life has never been found on the red planet, but like many other innovations originally developed for space, Chappelle’s inventions have found new purpose here on Earth. One of his most notable discoveries was luciferase, the enzyme found in fireflies that glows when it reacts with the protein luciferin in the presence of ATP—the currency of life. Because luciferase only reacts with luciferin when there…
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These past few weeks, I have written about many different genetic disorders and risk factors that stem from inherited errors in the DNA or mistakes in the division of chromosomes. But this week, I want to pivot a bit to talk about disorders that originate in a special form of DNA called mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Most of the DNA in your cells is housed within the nucleus, a central organelle (literally “little organ”—organelles are the “organs” of your cell with their own specific function). The nucleus keeps the DNA separate from all of the enzymes and chemical reactions of the…
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