Hints & tips from Nucleic Acids Research: FusionAnalyser – a new graphical, event-driven tool for fusion rearrangements discovery.
cancer archive.
DNA gets broken, and this could give rise to cancer. However, the broken end of the DNA is able to use a similar sequence for repair, and researchers at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology have found out how this works, in a paper published in Molecular Cell.
A recent study, described as “landmark” by sponsor Cancer Research UK, has used genetic biomarkers to split cancer up into 10 types, based on clusters of genetic markers, and these could help predict which treatments would be more effective, and what the outcomes for patients are likely to be. Read more in FierceBiomarkers…
There’s been a lot of research on the genetics of obesity, and it’s likely that more than one gene will be involved. And it’s important to know – as well as the effect that obesity has on the heart and the risk of cancer and diabetes, it may also affect brain function in later life.
There has been a lot of talk recently of the promise of personalised medicine, but some recent research led by Cancer Research UK may mean that this isn’t as simple as we thought – a genetic profile from one part of a tumour may not be the same as a sample from nearby in the same tumour.
Tasmanian devils could be extinct in 20 years because of a highly contagious facial cancer called devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). In two papers, researchers have sequenced the genome of the cancer and mapped the chromosome and gene rearrangements, and this could give the animals hope at last.
To highlight some of the critical work being done at the Goodman Cancer Research Centre, the organisation gathered some of its top scientists, students, lab techs and dedicated volunteers, who turned on the music – and danced!
Cancer is serious, and needs seriously effective drugs, but some cancer chemotherapies can cause genetic changes that can be passed on to the next generation. However, according to some research published in PNAS, it’s also possible that this next generation may end up with unstable DNA that is prone to even more mutations long after treatment, which is worrying for children of people who have survived cancer.
Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a rare and lethal childhood brain cancer, and researchers taking part in the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP) have found a link with a gene not previously connected with cancer, in a paper published in Nature Genetics.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has launched Explore, a freely available website for published research results from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP).
