Your DNA is changing all the time. Here’s why
6/9/202614 min
We tend to think of the DNA strands that contain our genetic code as consistent, stable units. But in reality, the cells that make up our bodies are constantly replicating and changing. Even as you read this sentence, in fact, the genes within your cells are mutating. So, what causes these mutations and what’s the impact? Science writer Roxanne Khamsi examines the answers in her new book, Beyond Inheritance. Today on the show, she gets into how scientists examine these mutations, how they’ve shifted our understanding of disease and what the future of genetic therapy could entail.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Emily Kwong· Host0:23
[gentle music] You're listening to Short Wave from NPR. Short波ers, I'm gonna take us back to high school biology, the genetics chapter. You may have learned that the human body is made up of trillions of cells, and inside those cells are DNA molecules, those strands that contain the genetic code that makes you you. But here's something that may surprise you and you may not have learned in school. That DNA is not the same for every cell, and that's because DNA is constantly changing.
Roxane Khamsi· Guest0:56
There's actually trillions of mutations happening in your cells every day.
Emily Kwong· Host0:59
This is Roxane Khamsi. She's a science journalist and a contributing writer at The Atlantic.
Roxane Khamsi· Guest1:04
We're just constantly in flux, partly because there's just wear and tear. Like, genes will get turned on, and sometimes things will break, and then enzymes will come in and try to fix it, but they won't always do the best job fixing it. So we are kind of a landscape of genetic diversity, each of us, just by nature of all the DNA changes, all those errors that pile up over the course of our lives.
Emily Kwong· Host1:27
By the way, scientists have known for decades that our genes