The information of the human genome is encoded by approximately 3 billion DNA base pairs and packaged into 23 pairs of chromosomes. If all chromosomes could be disentangled and linearly aligned, they would be a thin thread of about 2…
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New approach can help identify patients at risk for esophageal cancer
A combination of esophageal brushing and extensive genetic sequencing of the sample collected can detect chromosome alterations in people with Barrett's Esophagus, identifying patients at risk for progressing to esophageal cancer, according to a new study by researchers at the…
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Modified CRISPR/Cas9 complex targets specific histones
Finding a needle in a haystack is hard enough. But try finding a specific molecule on the needle. Rice University researchers have achieved something of the sort with a new genome editing tool that targets the supporting players in a…
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What are Viral Retroposons?
By Gillian D’Souza, MSc Retroposons are repetitive DNA fragments that are inserted into a host chromosome after reverse transcription from an RNA molecule. Credit: Katryna Kon/Shutterstock.com Retroposons that share structural similarities with retroviruses, such as the HIV virus, are called…
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‘Chromosome shattering’: Understanding chromothripsis in human cancer
Researchers at Harvard Medical School and EMBL-EBI have carried out the largest analysis across cancer types of the newly discovered mutational phenomenon chromothripsis. This study is the largest of its kind to date, containing whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from over…
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