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rg255
rg255
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I formally come from a physics/physical chemistry background, but I have begun to specialize this background in the area of the biomedical sciences and biomedical engineering. I found myself reading a publication by Michael King of Cornell University (Expert Opin. Drug Deliv. (2015) 12(3):375-392)an article which talks about using leukocytes as carriers for targeted cancer drug delivery. One of the frequent adhesion molecules that comes up in the paper is E-selectin, whose wikiwikipedia page I looked up to learn more about the molecule.

On that wikiwikipedia page, it says that E-selectin is encoded by the SELE gene. Now, I can see that the gene is called "SELE" as it abbreviates "Selectin E", but my question is: how did this become the "official" name for the gene? Why doesn't the official name reveal anything about the actual nucleotide sequence of the gene? If someone had never heard of E-selectin before, how is he/she supposed to learn anything about the gene just from the name "SELE" ?

Sorry if this is a very nit-picky question. It's just that most of the substances talked about in chemistry have official names that reveal information about the structure, even if there is a more commonly used "nickname." Thanks guys!

I formally come from a physics/physical chemistry background, but I have begun to specialize this background in the area of the biomedical sciences and biomedical engineering. I found myself reading a publication by Michael King of Cornell University (Expert Opin. Drug Deliv. (2015) 12(3):375-392) which talks about using leukocytes as carriers for targeted cancer drug delivery. One of the frequent adhesion molecules that comes up in the paper is E-selectin, whose wiki page I looked up to learn more about the molecule.

On that wiki page, it says that E-selectin is encoded by the SELE gene. Now, I can see that the gene is called "SELE" as it abbreviates "Selectin E", but my question is: how did this become the "official" name for the gene? Why doesn't the official name reveal anything about the actual nucleotide sequence of the gene? If someone had never heard of E-selectin before, how is he/she supposed to learn anything about the gene just from the name "SELE" ?

Sorry if this is a very nit-picky question. It's just that most of the substances talked about in chemistry have official names that reveal information about the structure, even if there is a more commonly used "nickname." Thanks guys!

I formally come from a physics/physical chemistry background, but I have begun to specialize in the area of the biomedical sciences and biomedical engineering. I found myself reading an article which talks about using leukocytes as carriers for targeted cancer drug delivery. One of the frequent adhesion molecules that comes up in the paper is E-selectin, whose wikipedia page I looked up to learn more about the molecule.

On that wikipedia page, it says that E-selectin is encoded by the SELE gene. Now, I can see that the gene is called "SELE" as it abbreviates "Selectin E", but my question is: how did this become the "official" name for the gene? Why doesn't the official name reveal anything about the actual nucleotide sequence of the gene? If someone had never heard of E-selectin before, how is he/she supposed to learn anything about the gene just from the name "SELE" ?

Sorry if this is a very nit-picky question. It's just that most of the substances talked about in chemistry have official names that reveal information about the structure, even if there is a more commonly used "nickname."

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Muhammad Khan
Muhammad Khan
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Non-descriptive gene nomenclature

I formally come from a physics/physical chemistry background, but I have begun to specialize this background in the area of the biomedical sciences and biomedical engineering. I found myself reading a publication by Michael King of Cornell University (Expert Opin. Drug Deliv. (2015) 12(3):375-392) which talks about using leukocytes as carriers for targeted cancer drug delivery. One of the frequent adhesion molecules that comes up in the paper is E-selectin, whose wiki page I looked up to learn more about the molecule.

On that wiki page, it says that E-selectin is encoded by the SELE gene. Now, I can see that the gene is called "SELE" as it abbreviates "Selectin E", but my question is: how did this become the "official" name for the gene? Why doesn't the official name reveal anything about the actual nucleotide sequence of the gene? If someone had never heard of E-selectin before, how is he/she supposed to learn anything about the gene just from the name "SELE" ?

Sorry if this is a very nit-picky question. It's just that most of the substances talked about in chemistry have official names that reveal information about the structure, even if there is a more commonly used "nickname." Thanks guys!