Genomics News and Research

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Genomics is the study of the complete genetic material, including genes and their functions, of an organism.

WUSTL scientists to decode DNA of 99 patients with rare diseases

Rare genetic diseases, long overlooked because they affect relatively few people, are getting new attention. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are reaching out to patient advocacy groups and offering to decode the DNA of 99 patients with rare diseases to help find the genetic alterations responsible for their illnesses.

3 Mar 2012

Genome sequencing helps characterize S. aureus ST398-NM strain

Using genome sequencing and household surveillance, National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their colleagues from Columbia University Medical Center and St. George's University of London have pieced together how a newly emerging type of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria has adapted to transmit more easily among humans.

29 Feb 2012

Researchers identify elusive gene responsible for TAR syndrome

Researchers have identified an elusive gene responsible for Thrombocytopenia with Absent Radii (TAR), a rare inherited blood and skeletal disorder. As a result, this research is now being transformed into a medical test that allows prenatal diagnosis and genetic counselling in affected families.

27 Feb 2012

UA researchers identify the likely culprit of epilepsy

Only 10 years ago, deciphering the genetic information from one individual in a matter of weeks to find a certain disease-causing genetic mutation would have been written off as science fiction. It was the time of the Human Genome Project, and it had taken armies of sequencing robots working around the clock for almost a decade to unravel the complete sequence of the human genetic code - referred to as the genome - by churning out the DNA alphabet letter by letter.

24 Feb 2012

MRSA strain in food animals concerns experts

The strain of staph, known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA CC398, most often infects farm workers who come in contact with infected pigs, turkeys, or cows. Now the strain of bacteria has been found in about half of meat samples taken throughout the country. The researchers say that the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in livestock used for food is to blame for the infection's drug resistance.

23 Feb 2012

First-ever comparative analysis of antimalarial medicines at every step of the parasite's life cycle

MMV and partners have completed the first-ever comparative analysis of all currently available and in-development antimalarials in terms of the steps they target in the parasite's lifecycle. This information provides the missing pieces of the puzzle needed to develop future medicines able to block transmission of the parasite from person to person.

23 Feb 2012

Study: MRSA jumps from food animals to humans

A strain of the potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant bacterium known as MRSA has jumped from food animals to humans, according to a new study involving two Northern Arizona University researchers.

22 Feb 2012

IDOM researchers overturn textbook view of liver metabolism

A team led by researchers from the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (IDOM) at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, has overturned a "textbook" view of what the body does after a meal.

22 Feb 2012

Tasmanian devil cancer genome mapped

Researchers, including those from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge, have sequenced the genome of a facial cancer that is threatening the existence of the Tasmanian devil.

21 Feb 2012

KI's chemical interaction map shows how inhibitors bind to PARP enzymes

A team of researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has generated a map over the effects of small drug-like molecules on PARP1 and other similar proteins in the body. This map may explain the mechanism behind putative side effects of the so-called PARP inhibitors, and can play an important role in the development of novel tailor-made cancer drugs.

20 Feb 2012

Researchers discover class of proteins that detect 'painful touch'

In two landmark papers in the journal Nature this week, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute report that they have identified a class of proteins that detect "painful touch."

19 Feb 2012

OICR launches Phase III Active Surveillance Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Trial

Dr. Nicole Onetto, Deputy Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), today announced the launch of an innovative Phase III clinical trial that aims to determine whether multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coupled with transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided biopsy (called fusion technology) can accurately identify men with prostate cancer who are at risk of developing aggressive disease.

18 Feb 2012

Evolutionary biologist receives LRI grant for lupus research

Evolutionary biologist Harmit Singh Malik, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has received a $300,000 grant from the Lupus Research Institute to study the potential role of "genetic conflicts" in the development of lupus, an autoimmune disease.

18 Feb 2012

Study reveals new guiding principles for cancer genomics

That our chromosomes can break and reshuffle pieces of themselves is nothing new; scientists have recognized this for decades, especially in cancer cells. The rules for where chromosomes are likely to break and how the broken pieces come together are only just now starting to come into view.

17 Feb 2012

Study: 3D organization of chromosomes plays a role in cancer genomics

It is well understood that chromosomal translocation - a process whereby pieces of two chromosomes break off and exchange places - is a hallmark of many cancers including leukemia, thyroid cancer and lymphoma and play an important part in how healthy cells become cancerous. The role spatial proximity plays in why certain chromosomal translocations happen repeatedly, however, has been a long-standing area of debate among scientists.

17 Feb 2012

Researchers sequence genome of Tasmanian devil contagious cancer

Researchers have sequenced the genome of a contagious cancer that is threatening the Tasmanian devil, the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, with extinction. Cataloguing the mutations present in the cancer has led to clues about where the cancer came from and how it became contagious.

17 Feb 2012

Researchers obtain sequence of 168 complete genomes of fruit fly

Discovering the relation between genetic variation and observable characteristics of individuals belonging to a species, such as a person's height or the manifestation of a hereditary disease is one of today's challenges in biology. Until now only a small part of the variation of these traits - which biologists name phenotypes - were attributed to genetic variations.

17 Feb 2012

Illumina introduces Cancer Analysis Service from IGN

Illumina, Inc. today announced the launch of a Cancer Analysis Service from the Illumina Genome Network (IGN) that leverages the high accuracy of Illumina technologies to provide cancer researchers with easily interpretable tumor/normal sequencing data to quickly move their research forward.

From Illumina, Inc. 16 Feb 2012

World Economic Forum releases list of 'Important Technologies'

The World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies has just released its list of "Important Technologies" that will change the world in the years ahead. The list highlights technology trends most likely to impact on the state of the world in the near future and was developed by a cross section of experts from science, businesses, and public policy.

15 Feb 2012

23andMe, Cleveland Clinic to discover how genes and environment influence PD

In an effort to study the interactions between genomics and Parkinson's disease, Cleveland Clinic has joined the ongoing efforts of 23andMe, a leading personal genetics company, to recruit Parkinson's patients to participate in research by contributing their DNA to a research database and completing online surveys about their health.

15 Feb 2012