The protein part of the substance is identical to natural human interferon beta-1a

Question

The protein part of the substance is identical to natural human interferon beta-1a.

Should there be the before "natural ... 2b"?

The protein part of the substance is identical to the natural human interferon beta-1a.

There are two adjectives: natural and human. On the other hand, there's the designation "beta-1a". Should we then omit the article, like we omit it in "Room 301"?

The article is omitted not because interferon beta-1a is a name but because it is a substance. — StoneyB on hiatus, Jul 26 '16 at 09:57
@StoneyB - but when I imagine "interferon beta-1a", it looks like an individual thing, a long protein. And it is compared with "the protein part", which is also a structural unit, not an uncountable substance. — CowperKettle, Jul 26 '16 at 10:11
But it's part of a substance; and chemical analysis is carried out on samples, not individual molecules. — StoneyB on hiatus, Jul 26 '16 at 10:45
We don't always omit the in the Room 301, or 401, as this answer explains. — Alan Carmack, Jul 26 '16 at 13:25

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 26 '16 at 13:18

The protein part of the substance is identical to natural human interferon beta-1a

This sentence is equivalent to

Synthetic vanillin is identical to natural vanillin.

In both cases, we are talking about a substance, which is uncountable

If we want to talk about an individual molecule, we would have to say

A molecule of Synthetic vanillin is identical to a molecule of natural vanillin

or

The molecular structure of synthetic vanillin is identical to that of natural vanillin.

Similarly, in your sentence, you would have to say

The molecular structure of the protein part of the substance is identical to that of natural human interferon beta-1a

The protein part of the substance is identical to natural human interferon beta-1a

1 Answers1