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.
- GenomeWeb Daily News
UK Invests $29.8M in Genome Analysis Centre as Part of Broader $392M Bioscience Investment - GenomeWeb Daily News
NIH Awards Lucigen $2.8M SBIR Grant for POC Influenza Test - GenomeWeb Daily News
GE Taps Former Affymetrix President Siegel to Lead Healthymagination - GenomeWeb Daily News
DARPA Awards $15.6M for Synthetic Biology Machinery, Methods - GenomeWeb Daily News
Studies Reveal New Prostate Cancer Mutation Profiles, Subtypes
- GenomeWeb Daily News
Smithsonian Museum to Launch Genomics Exhibit Supported by Life Technologies Foundation - GenomeWeb Daily News
GE Taps Former Affymetrix President Siegel to Lead Healthymagination - GenomeWeb Daily News
Studies Reveal New Prostate Cancer Mutation Profiles, Subtypes - Genome Technology
Google, Goldman, and GWAS - GenomeWeb Daily News
NIH Awards Lucigen $2.8M SBIR Grant for POC Influenza Test
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Video Spotlight
A Conversation with the American Museum of Natural History's George Amato
The American Museum of Natural History's George Amato, director of the museum's Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, discusses conservation and "landscape" genetics, his PLoS One paper on the use of DNA barcoding to detect illegal bushmeat in New York-area airports, and more.
May 22, 2012
BioArray News editor Justin Petrone sat down with Shashikant Kulkarni, an associate professor at Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis, to discuss chromosomal microarrary analysis in the clinic, SNP arrays versus CGH platforms for post-natal testing, and more.
May 16, 2012Miragen Therapeutics' Eva van Rooij
Miragen Therapeutics' Eva van Rooij discusses microRNA-based therapeutics, the challenges associated with chronic microRNA knockdown, therapeutic microRNA antagonists, and more.
May 08, 2012A Conversation with CeGaT's Saskia Biskup
In this video, Julia Karow, Editor of Clinical Sequencing News, interviews Saskia Biskup, CEO of the Center for Genomics and Transcriptomics, or CeGaT, at the company's headquarters in Tübingen, Germany.
May 02, 2012 -
Young Investigator Profile
Erin CarlsonAssistant Professor
Indiana UniversityBacterial PathogenesisThe Carlson lab researches the development and application of advanced chemical biology and systems biology technologies to both define the mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis and identify potential therapeutic agents. They are pursuing the development of technologies for natural product discovery including innovative methods for compound isolation, screening, and diversification. In addition, they are also utilizing state of the art metabolomic and proteomic methods to map the biochemical pathways associated with bacterial pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance.
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Blog
DARPA's getting into the genetic engineering business, with the help of the J. Craig Venter Institute and others.
May 24, 2012Peaks and Valleys in the Private Sector
While funding has tightened, returns on investments made in the life-science sector have risen, Nature Biotechnology reports.
May 24, 2012In Nature this week: modeling genotypes in 2D or 3D space, extremely low-coverage sequencing to assess low-frequency variation across the genome, and more.
May 24, 2012 -
Papers of Note
Genetic Data for Modern Genetic Breeds 'Have Yet to Shed Light on Dog Origins'
Larson, Karlsson et al., PNAS
A team led by researchers at the University of Durham investigate the value of modern genetic data to elucidate the origins of dog domestication by analyzing 49,024 autosomal SNPs in 19 wolves and 1,375 dogs, representing 35 breeds. The team reports having uncovered conflicting evidence when correlating the earliest archeological dogs with the geographic locations of 14 breeds thought to be ancient. "These genetically distinct ancient breeds only appear so because of their relative isolation, suggesting that studies of modern breeds have yet to shed light on dog origins," the authors write. -
People on the Move
IntegenX has appointed David Smith to serve as its new COO. Smith most recently served as CFO of Thoratec, and previous to that was CFO at Chiron. He currently is chair of the audit committee and a director of OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals and previously was chair of the audit committee and a director of Perlegen Sciences.
Vermillion said this week that President and CEO Gail Page will be leaving the company by September and the firm has begun the process to find her successor. Page also has resigned her seat on the board of directors, and effective immediately Vermillion amended its bylaws to eliminate the vacant seat, reducing its board from seven to six members.
Genomic Health has appointed Richard Tompane as president of its new subsidiary InVitae, which will focus on developing next-generation-based sequencing diagnostics for genetic diseases. Tompane was previously president and CEO of Gemfire and has also served as an independent consultant.
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Upcoming Events
Conferences, Meetings & Deadlines
Science
A study published in Science Translational Medicine suggests high-throughput sequencing is effective for finding post-treatment leukemia cells that can lead to patient relapse. Researchers used sequencing to test matched pre- and post-chemotherapy samples from 43 individuals with T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia. They found that the sequencing method tracked down minimal residual disease in 25 of the cases tested, including several missed by flow cytometry.Business
Agilent Technologies will spend $2.2 billion to acquire Danish diagnostics firm Dako. The deal marks a major push by Agilent into the diagnostics arena and provides the firm with Dako's portfolio of immunohistochemical cancer diagnostic tools and emerging companion diagnostics alliances as well as an entry into the $2.2 billion anatomic pathology market. Dako is expected to generate $373 million in revenues in fiscal 2013 with a $68 million operating profit.Funding
The National Institute on Aging will provide up to $6 million in 2013 to support up to three projects undertaking whole exome and/or whole genome sequencing data analysis to identify genomic contributions to both the risk for and protection against Alzheimer's disease. The funding program is part of the Presidential Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease and is expected to fund between one and three awards with up to $2 million direct cost per award for fiscal year 2013.Genome Technology Magazine
More than a decade ago, fluorescent reporter studies highlighted the stochastic nature of gene expression, and biologists then began to examine the phenotypic heterogeneity they saw in clonal cell populations, through they chalked up what they saw to noisiness in gene expression. Still, researchers wondered about the cause of the randomness they had observed. Now, biophysicists and systems biologists are looking into that question and aim to figure out how and why single cells and molecules behave the way they do, and the consequences of that behavior.
Eric Schadt learnt in the
Eric Schadt learnt in the Services that to fight tough battles one has to have a thick skin, or even sustain injuries.
The present revolution, superseding obsolete axioms from archaic times over half a Century ago when genome informatics was (for some, still is) "frighteningly unsophisticated" is still hindered by even cyber-libel damages from lonely morons (detractors) unable to contribute to informatics.
On the plus side, giants of informatics, like Andy Grove and Gordon Moore (Intel Founders) go on record with their utmost credibility in informatics (when Moore's Law is no longer valid in semiconductors but the drop of cost of DNA sequencing surpasses Moore's Law, Gordon Moore has just been sequenced twice - to be followed up by computing means to keep supply and demand sustainable).
Giants of Informatics clinch that the system must change, cross-disciplinary courses must be established (e.g. Grove's endowed Bioengineering connecting UCSF medical school to UC Berkeley's engineering school), Institutes such as Broad connecting Harvard Medical School to MIT or Eric Schadt's new Mount Sinai Institute of Genomics and Multi-Scale Biology pop up - with the ambitious plan to ignite the intellectual fusion of hitherto fragmented New York City entities, to make NYC a biotech-hub, perhaps surpassing even Silicon Valley. Having done NYC and Silicon Valley back and forth for almost four decades and illustrating by a YouTube Eric's point that what is obvious to a Google Tech Talk viewership (presently over 12,000 views) is flabbergasting to the informatically illiterates; e.g. some simply still can not comprehend how the obsolete "gene/junk" primitive view must yield to advanced mathematics of fractal, scale-free iterative recursion and multi-scale holistic models.
The challenge is not at all simply intellectual. It is a question of life or death for people suffering from "Junk DNA diseases" like cancer.