New technology reveals DNA in neurons is ‘mixed and matched,’ producing thousands of previously unknown gene variations — and identifying a potential near-term treatment for Alzheimer’s disease
Cancer scientists led by principal investigator Dr. Daniel De Carvalho at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have combined “liquid biopsy,” epigenetic alterations and machine learning to develop a blood test to detect and classify cancer at its earliest stages.
Neural networks and supervised machine learning (ML) techniques can characterise cells studied using single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq), scientists from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have learnt. This could aid others in identifying new cell subtypes and in discerning diseased cells.
Scientists have found a cause for the frequent and damaging events in cancer cells’ genetic material where sections of individual chromosomes were broken at a number of points and reassembled wrongly, so entire sections were missing and others were duplicated or incorporated in a wrong orientation.
Microfluidics for use in single cell applications is growing in popularity, as scientists are taking advantage of increasing numbers of commercially available systems enabling high throughput analysis of single cells.
CRISPR-Cas9 can carry out precise genome editing even without the assistance of donor DNA templates, a team of scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have found.
A new technology known as “Pattern to Knowledge” (P2K) has been created by researchers at the University of Waterloo to predict the binding of biosequences in only seconds. The new development could radically speed up discovery of new drugs and reduce the need for expensive laboratory tests.
Tumours are helped in their development by mutating the most important cancer-prevention gene, p53, scientists from Melbourne have found. The study, published in Genes and Development, found that mutant p53 prevents the regular p53 protein from activating its natural defences, increasing the risk of the cancer spreading.
Scientists from Cancer Research UK in Cambridge have advanced research into liquid biopsies for brain tumours by detecting tumour DNA in the fluid around the spine and brain.
A minuscule, biodegradable scaffold has been created to transplant stem cells and deliver drugs within the body, the Nature Communications journal has reported, which could help with treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as aging brain degeneration and spinal cord injuries.
A combination of drugs has potentially been uncovered that could halt the progression of fibrosis, a disease thought to be responsible for almost half of all deaths, according to a new study.
Dr. Jonathan Rothberg is a man who needs little introduction, and is now receiving the Association of Molecular Pathology’s (AMP) Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics Services. We spoke to him about his many achievements, his proudest moments, and the future of his fascinating field.
Given that Front Line Genomics was started after its founder’s father was diagnosed with Mesothelioma, it’s naturally a cause that we care passionately about. To that end we sat down with the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance (MCA), an organisation dedicated to providing resources, information, and support to individuals suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases and their families, to find out more about the great work they do and the challenges they face every day.
Every single cell in the human body could contain a cancer “kill code” set to destroy cells which become cancerous, a new study reported in Nature Communications. The study, conducted by Northwestern University in the US, found that cancer cannot become resistant to this code, making it a potentially incredibly effective treatment.
Maize is one of the most economically important crops globally and much effort has been spent generating the high quality B73 reference genome. However, the 10 chromosome, 2.3 gigabase (Gb) B73 reference genome was a substantial challenge due to the fact it is comprised of 85% transposable elements, 75% of which are long terminal […]
