Biolase's Waterlase system uses a patented combination of water and lasers to precisely cut hard tissues (bone and teeth) and soft tissue (gums) with minimal damage to surrounding areas.

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One example: The gene that makes the Epogen protein is expressed in only a few scattered tissues and is hard to detect by conventional gene-finding methods, which discover genes not by looking at DNA but by examining the RNA messengers that ferry genetic code between the DNA itself and the cellular machinery that make proteins.

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Over the years, he's been working on a technique called "plastination" that replaces the water and fat inside a body's tissues with polymers -- sticky, hard-drying plastics.

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