Genome

Analysis and Comment (5)

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The consortium’s work means cancer’s reign as one of our most devastating diseases may be over sooner rather than later. shutterstock.com

Beginning of the end for cancer?

By Sean Grimmond

The first results of the most comprehensive genetic survey of cancer ever to be undertaken by an international consortium of researchers have just started to come in. The consortium is mapping mutations…
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The stories behind the Human Genome Project are themselves extraordinarily human. widdowquinn

Explainer: what is the Human Genome Project?

By Melissa Southey, University of Melbourne

For many decades humans have pursued work to characterise the human genome. Today, publicly available references to genome sequences are available and have been instrumental in effecting recent advances…
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The completed sequence of the banana’s 11 chromosomes has global implications. Caro Wallace

Musa genome mapped: that’s bananas!

By Harjeet Khanna, Queensland University of Technology

What’s not to love about bananas? Besides being a wildly popular dessert fruit, they are the staple food of millions of people in developing countries. The current edition of Nature carries a paper that…
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A whole genome test is meaningless unless you can interpret it. Dave Faryam

The $1000 genome map: do you really want to know?

By Rony Duncan, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and Martin Delatycki, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

It’s now possible to access genetic testing from your living room or office, without the need to visit a health professional. There are many reasons why you might like to get a genetic test. Maybe someone…
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We may have pinpointed the event that started modern Y. pestis epidemics. Steam Pirate.

Did the Black Death give birth to modern plagues?

By Peter Reeves

Could contemporary plague outbreaks such as those that have hit Peru and the USA have their origins in the medieval era? It would seem so. A paper published in Nature today reports a genome sequence taken…

Research Briefs (8)

Genome of malaria parasite sequenced

Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute

Scientists have successfully sequenced the genome of the malaria-causing parasite, plasmodium vivax. The parasite shows…

Chronic stress damages your DNA

Duke University Medical Center

For the first time, researchers have identified the mechanism by which chronic stress can damage DNA. By infusing mice with…

Participants (9)