Check out the latest Genomics Week in Brief – full of intriguing news and research from the genomics space!
Top stories from the past week:
- Researchers have used optical ‘tweezers’ to uncover the mechanisms by which the common chemotherapy drug etoposide destroys cancer cells (Nature).
- Scientists from the American Chemical Society have presented a new hands-free, voice activated technology that can extract and prepare DNA in the lab (ACS Publications).
- A new, less invasive cancer diagnostic technique that utilises CRISPR/Cas-13a technology has been developed that requires only a blood sample from patients (ACS Sensors).
- Immunomodulatory antibodies that bind less tightly to cancer cells could be used to enhance immunotherapy treatments (Nature).
- A new genomic surveillance study has identified patterns of transmission and antibiotic resistance in the bacteria Shigella during the recent outbreak in Seattle, Washington (The Lancet).
- A meta-transcriptomics analysis has revealed the existence of thousands of previously unknown self-replicating viroids (Cell).
- A new study has shown that the expression of genes typically governed by the circadian rhythm is altered after mating in female fruit flies (PNAS).
- Scientists have developed a new technique to analyse G-quadruplexes that are responsible for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. The technology offers new hope in the fight against the two life-changing diseases (Nucleic Acids Research).
- Novel mutations that are related to antibiotic resistance have been identified in non-tuberculosis mycobacteria species (Zoonoses).
- Mothers who suffer from the inherited condition sickle cell disease are at higher risk of death during pregnancy and childbirth (JAMA).
- Deletion of the gene SNX9 ‘exhausts’ T cells during the fight against cancer. This new discovery may help to improve the resilience of the cells used in immunotherapies (Nature).
- Researchers have used single cell and spatial technologies to uncover the landscape of the lung tumour microenvironment (Nature).
In other news:
- Saturday 4th February was World Cancer Day. The international event focused on fundraising for cancer research and raising awareness of the disease (World Cancer Day).
- A company co-founded by the ‘founding father of genomics’, George Church, has this week announced their intention to ‘bring back the Dodo’ using revolutionary gene editing techniques (The Telegraph).
