DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is the genetic material in every cell of the body including blood, saliva, skin and hair. A gene is a section of DNA that contains the information our bodies need to make chemicals called proteins. In this way, they tell your cells how to function and what characteristics to express, and thus influence what we look like on the outside and how our bodies work on the inside. For example, one gene contains the code to make a protein called insulin, which plays an important role in helping your body control the amount of sugar in your blood.
Put simply, our DNA is the set of instructions for how our bodies are put together. Genes are the biological way that parents pass some of their characteristics to their children. Everyone (except identical—or monozygotic— twins) has a different set of genes – so they are like our own personal recipe book.