Genome

ARGONNE, Ill. -- June 9, 2008 -- The Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology (IGSB), a joint venture of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago, has acquired two new instruments that provide an enhanced ability to sequence genomes more quickly and broadly.

Argonne's genomics research is primarily funded DOE's Office of Science, which supports research that provides a fundamental scientific understanding of plants and microbes necessary to develop strategies for sequestering carbon gases, producing biofuels and cleaning up waste.    » read more »

Comprehensive analysis provides new view of genomic landscape of leading cause of cancer deaths

6-Sep-2007, HOUSTON - Three genomic tests separately predict the likelihood that a patient's breast cancer will reoccur after surgery without additional treatment, and the cancer's vulnerability to chemotherapy or hormone therapy, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report at the first American Society of Clinical Oncology ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium Sept. 7-8 in San Francisco.    » read more »

September 4, 2007, BERKELEY, CA — Three years ago, "ultraconserved elements" were discovered in the genomes of mice, rats, and humans. These are DNA sequences 200 base pairs in length or longer — some are over 700 base pairs long — showing 100-percent identity among the three species. They have been perfectly conserved since the last common ancestor of mice, rats, and humans, which lived some 85 million years ago.    » read more »

For the first time, researchers have replaced the whole genome of a bacterial cell with the genome of a closely related species. In a study published Thursday 28 June by the journal Science at its Science Express Web site, Carole Lartigue and colleagues describe how they transplanted the genome—in the form of naked DNA, virtually free of protein—and effectively turned one species of bacteria into another.    » read more »

Sequencing Unravels Secrets in the Complex Heterochromatin of the Fruit Fly

June 14, 2007 -- BERKELEY, CA — Not so long ago, the difficult-to-sequence, highly repetitive, gene-poor DNA found in regions of chromosomes known as heterochromatin was called "junk." Like dark matter in the universe, the true nature of heterochromatin was unknown.    » read more »