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Researchers have found that some of the so-called "junk DNA" actually functions important health

Anyone who has ever lost your car keys

you know the nagging question: "Where did you go?" Knowing where to look is the real trick to get out of routing. You will never find if you keep looking in the wrong place, but several times to check again.

Speaking at the British Science Festival in Bradford on Wednesday, Dr Alasdair MacKenzie biologist at the University of Aberdeen said that researchers are trying to fully understand how our DNA does not cause disease could be looking at all the right parts of the genome.

"The sad news is that about 25-30% of us suffer from a horrible disease at some point in our lives, for example, diabetes or heart disease caused by, for example, obesity. We said that we are all sensitive because it is wired in our genes - pieces of DNA in our genome that code for proteins - the bricks and mortar of life " said MacKenzie

The last decade of genetic studies have revealed that the 3 billion letters of DNA code length is more complex than anyone would have thought. What is striking is that nearly 88% of disease-causing mutations are located outside of genes, as MacKenzie called "dark matter" of the genome. These areas were previously called "junk DNA", but the researchers found that some of them are important parts of our cells with important functions. Certainly not junk.

MacKenzie team isolated a DNA fragment in the genome known as GAL5.1, which is not encoded in the genome. They found that this piece of DNA to act as a switch that controls the action of galanin - when we galanin activated. Switches genes tell where, when and how to produce protein.

In the future, scientists hope to develop new treatments that may be using drugs to manipulate the activity of these switches. These synthetic drugs could be used for the treatment of all diseases.

scientists are increasingly interested in how mutations in the human genome, particularly in areas not coded affect these switches. With up to 88% of pathogenic mutations in these areas are not genetic, it seems that there are many possibilities for new discoveries.