Guides & research, page 5

In-depth guides on protein analysis, molecular docking, drug discovery, and bioinformatics tools.

Antibodies · 8 min
How many monoclonal antibodies are FDA approved?
By our count of the FDA Purple Book, the FDA had licensed 159 monoclonal antibody products by September 2026, 150 of them still active. The broader published total of 169 through 2025 also counts Fc fusion proteins.
Cells · 7 min
How many NADH are produced in glycolysis?
Glycolysis produces two NADH per glucose, both at step 6. See why the step runs twice, how many NADH each stage of respiration makes, and what happens to glycolytic NADH with and without oxygen.
Cells · 9 min
How many neurons are in the human brain?
An adult human brain holds about 86 billion neurons, most of them in the cerebellum rather than the cortex. The popular figure of 100 billion was never measured.
Cells · 6 min
How many platelets are in the human body?
A typical adult man has about 2 trillion platelets: 1.3 trillion in circulating blood and 0.7 trillion held in the spleen. Each lives about 10 days.
Cells · 8 min
How many ribosomes are in a cell?
Ribosome counts range from about a thousand in the smallest bacteria to more than 10 million in large human cells. Compare bacterial, yeast, plant and mammalian cells, ribosome size, translation speed and polysomes.
Genetics · 7 min
How many SNPs are in the human genome?
A typical person carries 4 million to 5 million SNPs relative to the reference genome. About 10 million SNP sites are common worldwide, and dbSNP Build 157 lists 1.17 billion variant records.
Cells · 9 min
How many viruses infect humans?
The commonly cited estimate is about 270 known human-infecting viruses, but published totals range from 219 to 1,131 because studies use different evidence standards.
Cells · 8 min
How many white blood cells are in the human body?
About 23 to 55 billion white blood cells circulate in an adult's blood, but the whole body holds an estimated 1.8 trillion, most of them in bone marrow and lymph nodes.
Genetics · 8 min
How much DNA do siblings share?
Full siblings share about 50% of their DNA by descent on average, with measured pairs ranging from 37.4% to 61.7%. Fraternal twins share the same 50%, three-quarter siblings 37.5%, half-siblings 25% and identical twins virtually 100%.
Genetics · 10 min
How much DNA do humans share with chimpanzees?
Humans and chimpanzees match at 98.8% of aligned DNA letters, about 96% once insertions and deletions count, and about 85% under the strictest 2025 complete-genome rule, on which two human assemblies reach only 87%.
Genetics · 9 min
What percentage of the human genome is viral DNA?
About 9% of the human genome is viral DNA in the standard sense: inherited endogenous retrovirus sequences and their LTR relatives. ProteinIQ counted 9.1% of GRCh38 and 8.8% of the complete T2T-CHM13 genome, about 270 million bases.
Proteins · 13 min
How many types of proteins are in the human body?
The human body makes nearly 20,000 distinct proteins, grouped into about seven functional types, yet only about a third of reviewed human proteins fit any of them. Collagen alone has 28 types.
Genetics · 12 min
Oligo analyzer comparison
Oligo analyzers and primer Tm calculators disagree by several degrees on the same primer, mostly because they assume different salt, Mg2+ and oligo concentrations. We compare the methods, corrections, hairpin and dimer checks, outputs and access of IDT OligoAnalyzer, Primer3, NEB, Thermo Fisher, Promega and ProteinIQ.
Genetics · 12 min
How many chromosomes do different species have?
Dogs have 78 chromosomes, cats 38, humans 46 and chimpanzees 48. See which other animals share our 46, which have the most and fewest, and why counts differ.
Genetics · 10 min
How long is human DNA?
Each human cell holds about 2 m of DNA, and the whole body about 14 billion km, or 96 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. Each base pair adds 0.34 nm.
Proteins · 7 min
How many amino acids are there?
Proteins use 20 standard amino acids. Selenocysteine and pyrrolysine bring the genetically encoded set across life to 22, nine are essential in the human diet, and about 500 occur in nature.
Cells · 4 min
How many ATP are produced in fermentation?
Lactic acid and alcoholic fermentation each yield two net ATP per glucose. All of that ATP comes from glycolysis; the fermentation reactions add no more.
Genetics · 16 min
How many genes do humans have?
Humans have about 20,000 protein-coding genes: 19,442 in GENCODE v50, 19,878 in Ensembl 116 and 19,838 in CHESS 3.1.3. With RNA genes and pseudogenes, GENCODE lists 78,733.
Genetics · 18 min
How much DNA do humans share with other animals?
Pigs do not share 98% of human DNA. Measured the same way for every species, a typical pig protein is 89% identical to the human one, against 99% for chimpanzees and 86% for rats.
Genetics · 15 min
How much DNA do humans share with bananas?
Yes, but not 50%. About 18% of human genes have a banana counterpart, their proteins are about 40% identical, and only 0.08% of the human genome matches.
Genetics · 8 min
How big is the human genome?
The human genome is about 3.1 billion base pairs long per chromosome set, or 6.3 billion per cell. Compare GRCh38, T2T-CHM13 and genome file sizes in GB.
Cells · 14 min
What are the largest and smallest cells in the human body?
The egg is the largest human cell at about 115 µm, sperm the smallest and a sensory neuron the longest. We also ranked 401 human cell types by mass.
Proteins · 7 min
What is the largest protein?
PKZILLA-1 is the largest known protein at 45,212 amino acids. Titin is the largest human protein, and von Willebrand factor the largest in blood plasma.
Proteins · 12 min
How many proteins are there?
Humans have about 20,000 proteins, one per protein-coding gene. UniProt lists 150 million protein records across all life. See what each count measures.

How many monoclonal antibodies are FDA approved?

How many NADH are produced in glycolysis?

How many neurons are in the human brain?

How many platelets are in the human body?

How many ribosomes are in a cell?

How many SNPs are in the human genome?

How many viruses infect humans?

How many white blood cells are in the human body?

How much DNA do siblings share?

How much DNA do humans share with chimpanzees?

What percentage of the human genome is viral DNA?

How many types of proteins are in the human body?

Oligo analyzer comparison

How many chromosomes do different species have?

How long is human DNA?

How many amino acids are there?

How many ATP are produced in fermentation?

How many genes do humans have?

How much DNA do humans share with other animals?

How much DNA do humans share with bananas?

How big is the human genome?

What are the largest and smallest cells in the human body?

What is the largest protein?

How many proteins are there?