Ten years ago, clinicians at several hospitals across the United States began sequencing the genomes of seemingly healthy infants in an attempt to understand how this technology would be able to detect recessive genetic disorders that would not be detected by conventional newborn blood tests. Recently, a team of researchers from BabySeq, the world’s first clinical randomized trial of newborn genome sequencing, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG) the latest results of the project, which found that about 11 percent of the first infants screened for genome sequencing were f ..read more

Ten years ago, clinicians at several hospitals across the United States began sequencing the genomes of seemingly healthy infants in an attempt to understand how this technology would be able to detect recessive genetic disorders that would not be detected by conventional newborn blood tests. Recently, a team of researchers from BabySeq, the world’s first clinical randomized trial of newborn genome sequencing, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG) the latest results of the project, which found that about 11 percent of the first infants screened for genome sequencing were f ..read more

In recent years, TCR sequencing has become a vital area of research for investigating the structure and distribution of T cell receptors. The TCR, also known as the T cell receptor, is the fundamental component used by T cells to recognize antigens, stimulate T cell activation, and promote proliferation. TCR sequencing is essential in various research areas, including identifying new immunotherapy targets, studying immune therapy and injury mechanisms… The Main Three Studies of TCR Detection One of the main research tasks of TCR detection is to help researchers understand the characteris ..read more

Introduction of CRISPR technology In recent years, the field of genetic analysis has witnessed a groundbreaking advancement with the emergence of CRISPR sequencing. While CRISPR-Cas9 is well-known for its gene-editing capabilities, CRISPR sequencing harnesses the power of CRISPR technology to revolutionize our understanding of the genome. This blog post explores how CRISPR sequencing is transforming genetic analysis, its advantages over traditional sequencing methods, and its potential applications in research and clinical settings. The Limitations of Traditional Sequencing Traditional se ..read more

What is ribosomal RNA? Ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) are the major components of ribosomes, which are responsible for protein synthesis by converting the instructions found in messenger RNA into the chains of amino acids. The key catalytic activity of ribosomes comes from the rRNAs. Additionally, rRNAs play an active role in recognizing conserved portions of mRNAs and tRNAs. rRNA molecules are synthesized in the nucleolus, which contains the genes that encode rRNAs. Each ribosome contains at least one large rRNA and at least one small rRNA. The large and small rRNAs combine with proteins to form the s ..read more

The result of the Human Genome Project is a recognized "standard" for scientists – the reference genome. Like a coordinate system, researchers can better understand the structure, function, and variation of the human genome against the reference genome. The Human Genome Project began in 1990, the working draft was published in 2001, and the final sequencing map was completed in 2003, a landmark achievement in the history of human life sciences. However, this "map" is not complete, leaving 8% of the gaps. The Missing 8% of the Human Genome Sequence This 8% gap is mainly a heterochromatin region ..read more

Since the first human genome was published in 2000, many reference genomes have been assembled successively in various species. However, the highly repetitive sequences (telomeric, mitotic, ribosomal DNA) clustered in the genome have resulted in many missing fragments in the assembled genomes. Fortunately, thanks to improvements in sequencing technologies and computational algorithms, a new era of genome assembly has been ushered in: the telomere-telomere genome (T2T genome). Now, more than 30 T2T genomes have been sequenced and completed, but grapes still do not have a corresponding T2T genom ..read more

The use of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors has significantly improved overall survival in a subset of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, but only about 20% of patients respond to treatment. Identifying predictors of response is crucial to improve patient selection for immunotherapy. However, current understanding of relevant predictors is limited by the lack of large, multi-omic studies specific for immunotherapy in NSCLC. A recent study published in Nature Genetics by the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Broad Institute and AstraZeneca team addressed this gap by performing a join ..read more

In the realm of molecular biology research, there exist two oft-confounded methodologies used with regularity: genotyping and DNA sequencing. Despite their seeming synonymy, these methods differ considerably regarding their impact on research outcomes and applications. This blog post endeavors to elucidate the contrasts between genotyping and DNA sequencing, while exploring their respective benefits and drawbacks. Additionally, we will probe the diverse applications of these methods within the complex and dynamic field of molecular biology. What Is Genotyping The multifaceted and intricate pro ..read more

Recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) has emerged as one of the primary vectors for gene therapy. This is because it has many desirable properties, including lack of pathogenicity, efficient infection of dividing and non-dividing cells, and sustained maintenance of the viral genome. With an excellent safety profile in numerous preclinical studies and hundreds of clinical trials worldwide, AAV vectors are widely used as an excellent platform for gene editing, gene knockout as well as insertion. What is AAV? AAV consists of a protein capsid that protects a small single-stranded DNA genome, ap ..read more