Scientists form International Cancer Genome Consortium Scientists join together to form the International Cancer Genome Consortium, one of most ambitious biomedical research efforts since the Human Genome Project. The consortium will help to coordinate current and future large-scale projects to understand the genomic changes involved in cancer. This genomic information will accelerate efforts to develop better ways of diagnosing, treating and preventing many types of cancer.
Scientists develop strategy to rapidly describe outbreak strains with next-generation DNA sequencing Following an outbreak or a bioterrorist attack, standard DNA sequencing and analysis of a pathogen genome for rapid identification of genetic changes or manipulations is time-intensive and likely impractical during an emergency. Researchers have now developed a comparative genomics strategy to drastically reduce the time needed to accurately identify unique genetic properties of a potential outbreak strain. This report, which demonstrates the approach using next-generation sequencing technology, is published online today in Genome Research (www.genome.org).
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Researchers ID gene linked to lung cancer Researchers at Johns Hopkins, as part of a large, multi-institutional study, have found one gene variant that is linked to an increased risk of lung cancer. The study will be published in the April 3 issue of Nature Genetics.
Bjoern Peters et al. from La Jolla and California State provide an unbiased ranking of the performance of publicly available MHC class II prediction tools and highlight the binding core identification as a critical issue that limits the prediction performance. PLoS Comput Biol 4(4): e1000048.
Laguna, Bohn & Jagla explore the idea that elastic stresses play an important role in the development of leaf venation patterns. Through a comparison of actual and simulated patterns, their hypothesis explains the existence of hierarchical structures not accounted for by auxin canalization. PLoS Comput Biol 4(4): e1000055.
Quantitative analysis of robustness and fragility in biological networks based on feedback dynamics ., Bioinformatics Advance Access published on February 19, 2008 Bioinformatics 2008 24: 987-994;
FTFD: an informatics pipeline supporting phylogenomic analysis of fungal transcription factors., Bioinformatics Advance Access published on February 26, 2008 Bioinformatics 2008 24: 1024-1025;
Combining microarray and proteomics datasets at the level of individual exons and isoforms helps to obtain higher correlation between the datasets and to account for alternative splicing.
An extended coulomb/accessible surface area solvent model acts as an empirical scoring function for assessing protein stability and ligand binding affinities in protein structure prediction and computational protein design
PubMed abstracts can now be effectively screened for articles related to human genetic association studies and genome epidemiology using GAPscreener, a free java-based tool.
Errors in microbial genome sequences are not restricted to point mutations and may also consist of large-scale rearrangements, such as insertions, which should be rectified so that these data can be of continuing use.
A genomewide set of 820 SNP assays developed for a wide range of lab rat strains will ease genetic mapping studies and association studies in this important disease model.
The Songbird Neurogenomics initiative (SoNG) provides a genomic database, a set of genomic tools and also a mechanism for community collaboration to enhance research linking the genomics, evolution, neuroscience and behavior of songbirds.