A hypothetical snapshot of a cell's interior

Professor James Eberwine discusses what we might see were we to take a snapshot of the internal dynamics of a living cell, which might resemble Grand Central Station during rush hour.

One of the major areas of growth in neuroscience these days, combines neuroscience with genomics. The goal is to be able to understand gene expression and protein level abundances and dynamics within live cells. What we might envision would be RNAs being translated into proteins in different regions of the cell at different rates, because of different types of stimulation; you would expect to find RNAs made from the genomic DNA that would be targeted to different regions of the cell responding to different types of stimulation. It would just be a hodgepodge of activity like Grand Central Station during rush hour, where you would find molecules going all over the place but in a directed manner. In Grand Central Station people are going to their specific trains, in the cell RNAs and proteins are going to specific sites for functioning.