{"id":231749,"date":"2026-02-20T21:22:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T03:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/scientists-find-hundreds-of-genes-that-behave-like-light-switches"},"modified":"2026-02-20T21:22:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T03:22:33","slug":"scientists-find-hundreds-of-genes-that-behave-like-light-switches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/scientists-find-hundreds-of-genes-that-behave-like-light-switches","title":{"rendered":"Scientists find hundreds of genes that behave like light switches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-find-hundreds-of-genes-that-behave-like-light-switches.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If cancer\u2019s genetic off switch is found then even Covid 19s off switch could essentially be found aswell.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Gene expression, where cells use the genetic information encoded in DNA to produce proteins, has been thought of as a dimmer light.<\/p>\n<p>How much a particular gene gets expressed continually rises and falls, depending on the needs of a cell at any given time. It\u2019s like adjusting the lighting of a room until it\u2019s just right for your mood.<\/p>\n<p>But University at Buffalo researchers have shown that a considerable portion of a human\u2019s roughly 20,000 genes express more like your standard light switch \u2014 fully on or fully off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If cancer\u2019s genetic off switch is found then even Covid 19s off switch could essentially be found aswell. Gene expression, where cells use the genetic information encoded in DNA to produce proteins, has been thought of as a dimmer light. How much a particular gene gets expressed continually rises and falls, depending on the needs [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}