Page 158 - The Miracle of Hormones
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THE MIRACLE OF HORMONES
was awarded the Nobel Prize in
1994 for his work in cellular com-
It is He Who created the
munication. Professor Gilman
heavens and the Earth
had this to say about this subject:
with truth. The day He
If the brain needs sugar, the
liver has got to put it out. If says "Be!" it is. His speech
the muscles need more is Truth. The Kingdom will
blood, the heart has got to be His on the Day the
beat faster. Hundreds of dif- Trumpet is blown, the
ferent chemical signals flow
Knower of the Unseen and
around the body, released
the Visible. He is the All-
from one cell to influence
Wise, the All-Aware.
the activities of other cells.
(Qur'an, 6: 73)
Cells are constantly being
bombarded with very large
numbers of chemical signals
that tell them what to do and how to perform…The bigger problem,
and the one that is most difficult to figure out, is how all of these
modules interact together. 48
And the AFCS, beginning its work towards this goal, explained
their enterprise using this comparison;
The Alliance will launch voyages of discovery aimed at two conti-
nents (cardiac myocytes, B lymphocytes). We know a little about the
coastline of each continent—a few harbors and mountain ranges
near the coast (receptors, ligands, and crudely sketched signaling
pathways). We will thus concentrate first on exploring the coast
more thoroughly, at the outset with more attention to the harbors
that we know best (e.g., G protein-coupled receptors and heterotri-
meric G proteins) but not neglecting many we know less well
(receptor tyrosine kinases, cytokine receptors, etc.). Mapping the
interior of the continent begins with expeditions to inland areas
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