News by Subject Biology

Researchers tracked genomic alterations detected in patient samples during tumor cell evolution in culture, in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse models from the cultures, as well as before and after treatment in patients. In a recent paper in Nature Genetics, the team reports that tumor progression was often driven by cancer-promoting genes, known as oncogenes, on extrachromosomal pieces of DNA.

Genetic differences between two very similar fungi, one that led to Quorn™, the proprietary meat substitute, and another that ranks among the world's most damaging crop pathogens, have exposed the significant features that dictate the pair's very different lifestyles, features that promise targets for controlling disease.

Findings from Canadian Prostate Cancer Genome Network (CPC-GENE) researchers and their collaborators, published today in Cell, show that the aggressiveness of an individual prostate cancer can be accurately assessed by looking at how that tumor has evolved. This information can be used to determine what type and how much treatment should be given to each patient, or if any is needed at all.

International research consortium led by researchers from the University of Helsinki, Finland, discovered new information related to a rare form of leukemia called aggressive NK-cell leukemia. Potential new treatment options were found which are highly warranted as currently this disease usually leads to rapid death of patients.

Advances in genome sequencing are providing vast amounts of genetic information that researchers are using to explore the plant family tree. This special issue showcases cutting-edge techniques that are providing solutions to challenges in the study of evolution of species (or phylogenetics); issue highlights include an overview of current options for phylogenomic studies, a new natural language processing pipeline, metagenomics pipeline comparisons, and reviews of sequence capture methods and custom pipelines for marker selection.

In a groundbreaking paper, investigators at the Cancer Research Institute Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center developed a novel approach to identify and determine the functional role of lncRNAs relevant to chemotherapy resistance in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). The new technique integrates information from publicly-available pharmacological data bases with leading-edge CRISPR technologies to screen for both coding and non-coding genes that influence response to treatment.