Human Genetic Variation Alters Anthrax Toxin Sensitivity
Martchenko, Candille et al., PNAS
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine show that genetic variation affecting capillary morphogenesis gene 2, or CMG2, dramatically alters toxin sensitivity in humans. In its analysis, the team reports on "a CMG2 single-nucleotide polymorphism occurring frequently in African and European populations [that they found] independently altered toxin uptake." The group goes on to suggest "testing of genomically characterized human cell populations may offer a broadly useful strategy for elucidating effects of genetic variation on infectious disease susceptibility."
IBM's New Energy-Efficient Data Analysis Method
February 26, 2010
IBM researchers in Zurich have announced a new method that uses an algorithm to reduce the complexity, cost, time, and subsequently, energy usage for analyzing large-scale data sets. They demonstrated the new method using a Blue Gene/P system at the Forschungszentrum Julich in Germany to validate, without significant error, nine terabytes of data in less than 20 minutes, without compromising accuracy. Usually this process would take roughly a day. The breakthrough, which was presented yesterday at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics conference in Seattle, used just one percent of the energy that would normally be required for such a job. Needless to say, many a bioinformatician is probably waiting with bated breath to see the possible applications of such a method to monstrous next-generation sequencing data sets.