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.
Supercomputers Aid Nanopore Sequencing Design
May 09, 2011
Earthsky.org has a podcast by Aleksei Aksimentiev, an assistant professor at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, describing his approach to personalized medicine with supercomputers.
90 second podcast:
8 minute podcast:
Aksimentiev is using the Ranger supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center to develop cheap DNA sequencing using nanopores. He and his colleagues are using Ranger to simulate in atomic detail the process of DNA transfers through these nanometer pores and develop a numerical model of the nanopore sensor. Recently, they carried out the first-ever atomistic simulations of DNA translocation through synthetic nanopores.