PCR is just generic polymerase chain reaction, done with DNA. The “qRT” in qRT-PCR stands for quantitative reverse transcription; in qRT-PCR, instead of DNA being amplified, RNA is added to PCR, and then reverse transcribed to measure its levels. Measuring RNA can be more useful, because it is not always expressed in cells like DNA is, so it can more accurately represent how much a gene is being expressed.
It is possible that Cory’s location in the genome would give a hint as to whether or not it is involved in the DNA damage repair pathway. However, I think the levels of expression (i.e., how much of the gene gets transcribed and later translated into a functional protein) would be more indicative of how involved the gene is in the DNA damage repair pathway (i.e., does Cory’s expression increase upon inducing DNA damage).
curesymposium.org 
What specifically is Cory?
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Cory was the gene of interest that was studied in this research! It was named based on its function, which is a Core-Y Ribonuclease. 🙂
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Great job! What’s the difference between PCR and qRT-PCR? What does the “qRT” stand for?
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PCR is just generic polymerase chain reaction, done with DNA. The “qRT” in qRT-PCR stands for quantitative reverse transcription; in qRT-PCR, instead of DNA being amplified, RNA is added to PCR, and then reverse transcribed to measure its levels. Measuring RNA can be more useful, because it is not always expressed in cells like DNA is, so it can more accurately represent how much a gene is being expressed.
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Would the location of Cory (within the genome) have given any clues of the function/ be another method of answering the research objective?
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It is possible that Cory’s location in the genome would give a hint as to whether or not it is involved in the DNA damage repair pathway. However, I think the levels of expression (i.e., how much of the gene gets transcribed and later translated into a functional protein) would be more indicative of how involved the gene is in the DNA damage repair pathway (i.e., does Cory’s expression increase upon inducing DNA damage).
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Is Cory a protein or a piece of RNA?
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Cory is a gene that will eventually be transcribed into RNA, and later translated into a protein! 🙂
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