Connection Between Epigenome, Selective Mutability, Evolution, and Human Disease
Li, Harris et al., PLoS Genetics
Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine and elsewhere propose a "connection between the epigenome, selective mutability, evolution, and human disease" based on the findings of their study on associations of structural mutability with germline DNA methylation and with non-allelic homologous recombination mediated by low-copy repeats. "Combined evidence from four human sperm methylome maps, human genome evolution, structural polymorphisms in the human population, and previous genomic and disease studies consistently points to a strong association of germline hypomethylation and genomic instability," the Baylor-led team writes.
A Cross-Country Venture
As our sister publication GenomeWeb Daily News reports, Pacific Biosciences' Chief Scientific Officer Eric Schadt will lead the Mount Sinai Institute of Genomics and Multiscale Biology. As part of the collaboration between PacBio and Mount Sinai, GWDN continues, "a Single Molecule Real Time Biology User Facility will be established within the institute, which is the hub of genomics research at Mount Sinai and collaborates with 13 other disease-oriented and core technology-based institutes at Mount Sinai." Luke Timmerman at Xconomy San Francisco adds that the "union of PacBio and [Mount] Sinai is a high-profile effort to bridge the traditional divide between lab research and clinical treatment of patients," saying that both parties are likely to benefit:
Timmerman also says that, by joining Mount Sinai, "Schadt and PacBio are walking away from a potential partnership with UC-San Francisco, which had been wooing Schadt for months," and that this move raises questions as to the future of the New York Genome Center, "a fledgling effort to bring together a number of New York's top biomedical research centers to create a shared world-class genomics research facility," which, he adds, is still its planning phases.
Over at The New York Times' Prescriptions blog, Andrew Pollack says that under the terms of the collaboration, PacBio will supply the institute with two of its single-molecule, real-time machine prototypes. He adds that the school is "expected to buy at least one of the standard $695,000" PacBio RS sequencers that the company has recently begun to ship.
Kudos to Eric, who is now
Kudos to Eric, who is now also the Chairman of the Mount Sinai Institute of Genomics AND Multiscale Biology. The CSO of sequencer PacBio, he is a brilliant rebel, a proponent that focusing on individual genes is not the way to treat diseases or discover drugs. In the paradigm shift of the "genome revolution" documented by the Battelle Study as the most disruptive economic singularity of science and technology ever, already the size of beyond the GDP of Brazil, about the same as the GDP of Russia and just slightly smaller than the GDP of India, rebels are becoming acknowledged leaders. "Multiscale" is a quantum leap towards "scale free" fractals. It is particularly nice to see that "New York's gain is NOT Silicon Valley's loss! - Andras Pellionisz