If DNA does something other than code for proteins, and allow for the coding of proteins, there is ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE for it.
You think a chemical structure is now transcendent and mystical? If you think a chemical structure is transcendent and mystical it would follow that there is little in this world that you do not think is as well.
The physical brain is necessary to explain our brain (or mind if you will) - a defect in the physical brain causes a defect in cognition - because cognition is the product of the operation of our physical mind.
And thus we discover your definition of "mind," at last: In so many words, "mind" is an epiphenomenon of physical brain.
To which I would proffer an alternative understanding: The physical brain causes nothing by itself in the "mind" department. It structures all kinds of autonomic activity in the physical body designed to preserve living function; but it does not itself "think." Rather, it is the "substrate" on which thinking — that is, minds — depends. That is, it is the facilitator of something else, which is "beyond" itself.
JMHO FWIW.
I do not think you have fully engaged the problem of "mind" yet, dear brother.
Hey, I can show you where to look. What I can't do is tell you what to see.
But if I suspected in the least that you were looking along these lines, this would be good enuf for me.
May God ever bless you, dear brother!