Logo

Platitude of the Day: You Can't Know Where You're Going If You Don't Know Where You've Been

Oct 26, 2007

The latest issue of Nucleic Acids Research has a free-access review piece from Clyde Hutchison at the J. Craig Venter Institute that gives a nice background on the history of DNA sequencing. And if history isn't your thing, he includes sections on next-gen sequencing and where he thinks all of this is going. To wit:

The currently popular vision that an investigator with a single benchtop machine could replace a large sequencing center can only be realized with increases in the productivity of computers and bioinformaticians even more dramatic than that expected for sequencers. It appears that for our individual $1000 genome sequences to be truly useful, fundamental advances in computation and bioinformatics will be essential.

 

Breaking News
The Scan

Positive Framing of Genetic Studies Can Spark Mistrust Among Underrepresented Groups

Researchers in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances report that how researchers describe genomic studies may alienate potential participants.

Small Study of Gene Editing to Treat Sickle Cell Disease

In a Novartis-sponsored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a CRISPR-Cas9-based treatment targeting promoters of genes encoding fetal hemoglobin could reduce disease symptoms.

Gut Microbiome Changes Appear in Infants Before They Develop Eczema, Study Finds

Researchers report in mSystems that infants experienced an enrichment in Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Finegoldia and a depletion of Bacteroides before developing eczema.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment Specificity Enhanced With Stem Cell Editing

A study in Nature suggests epitope editing in donor stem cells prior to bone marrow transplants can stave off toxicity when targeting acute myeloid leukemia with immunotherapy.