TGI Articles

A team of researchers led by the Genome Institute and Washington University School of Medicine has identified virtually all of the major mutations that drive acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a fast-growing blood cancer in adults that often is difficult to treat.

The most in-depth look yet at endometrial cancer shows that adding genomics-based testing to the standard diagnostic workup could change the recommended course of treatment for some women.

Researchers at the Genome Institute and Washington University School of Medicine are working together on projects to help eliminate the tropical disease lymphatic filariasis and control other diseases caused by parasitic worms.

Scientists at the Genome Institute and elsewhere have decoded the genome of the platyfish, a cousin of the guppy and a popular choice for home aquariums.

The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has identified mutations responsible for more than half of a subtype of childhood brain tumor that takes a high toll on patients. Researchers also found evidence the tumors are susceptible to drugs already in development.

Decoding the genome of the western painted turtle reveals new clues to turtles’ longevity and the ability to survive without oxygen during long winters.

The bacteria that cause acne live on everyone’s skin, yet one in five people is lucky enough to develop only an occasional pimple over a lifetime. What’s the secret?

What can we learn about human evolution from an eel-like creature with a sucker-shaped mouth? Apparently, quite a lot.

(Photo Credit: Jeramiah Smith)

For many of our cancer papers, we subdivide the human genomes into tiers and categorize somatic mutations by which tier they fall in. These tiers are described in the supplemental material for Mardis et al. 2009. We have continued to update these tiers as genomic annotations change and the most up-to-date versions are posted below.

Our bodies contain far more microbial genes than human genes. And a new study suggests that just as human DNA varies from person to person, so too does the massive collection of microbial DNA in the intestine.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project discovery provides insight into a tough-to-cure form of acute myeloid leukemia that lays the groundwork for clinical care advances.

By decoding the genomes of more than 1,000 people whose homelands stretch from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Americas, scientists have compiled the largest and most detailed catalog yet of human genetic variation.

The most comprehensive analysis yet of breast cancer shows that one of the most deadly subtypes is genetically more similar to ovarian tumors than to other breast cancers.

Lung cancer patients with a history of smoking have 10 times more genetic mutations in their tumors than those with the disease who have never smoked, according to a new study from the Genome Institute and Washington University School of Medicine.

Using advanced sequencing and analysis technology, researchers at the Genome Institute and their colleagues have helped their fellow doctor, Lukas Wartman, survive the cancer he studies.

Hundreds of mutations exist in leukemia cells at the time of diagnosis, but nearly all occur randomly as a part of normal aging and are not related to cancer, new research from the Genome Institute and Washington University School of Medicine shows.

Researchers studying the genetic roots of the most common malignant childhood brain tumor have discovered missteps in subtypes of the cancer that involve genes already targeted for drug development.

TGI sequences genomes from hundreds of organisms that are important research tools in fields such as infectious disease, agriculture, industry and environmental studies.

Decoding the DNA of patients with advanced breast cancer has allowed scientists to identify distinct cancer "signatures" that could help predict which women are most likely to benefit from estrogen-lowering therapy, while sparing others from unnecessary treatment

A consortium of some 200 scientists at the Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere report findings from the most comprehensive census of the microbial makeup of healthy humans.

Scientists at the Genome Institute and Siteman Cancer Center have received a $4 million grant from Susan G. Komen for the Cure for developing innovative treatments in the fight against breast cancer.

To speed progress against cancer and other diseases, the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital-Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has announced the largest release to date of comprehensive human cancer genome data for free access by the global scientific community.

The St. Louis Academy of Science honors directors Richard Wilson, Elaine Mardis and Timothy Ley with the George Engelmann Interdisciplinary Science Award recognizing outstanding achievement in science, engineering or technology that results from collaboration among two or more individuals across disciplinary and/or institutional boundaries.

Scientists at the Genome Institute are using powerful DNA sequencing technology not only to identify mutations at the root of a patient's tumor - considered key to personalizing cancer treatment - but to map the genetic evolution of disease and monitor response to treatment.

By mapping the evolution of cancer cells in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes who later died of leukemia, Washington University scientists have found clues to suggest that targeted cancer drugs should be aimed at mutations that develop early in the disease.

Researchers at the Genome Institute and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have identified the first gene mutation associated with a chronic and often fatal form of neuroblastoma that typically strikes adolescents and young adults.

Scientists at the Genome Institute and Washington University School of Medicine find that DNA sequences from tumors grown in mice can be used to direct the immune system to attack cancer.

Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumor of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumors have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique role in other aggressive pediatric brain tumors as well. The findings from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP) offer important insight into a poorly understood tumor that kills more than 90 percent of patients within two years. The tumor, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), is found almost exclusively in children and accounts for 10 to 15 percent of pediatric tumors of the brain and central nervous system.

The Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) meeting is an annual scientific forum for acquiring information about the latest advances in DNA sequencing technologies and applications.

A new study provides the first details of the genetic alterations fueling a subtype of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that has a poor prognosis. The findings from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP) highlight a possible new strategy for treating patients with this more aggressive cancer.

New findings from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP) have helped identify the mechanism that makes the childhood eye tumor retinoblastoma so aggressive. The discovery explains why the tumor develops so rapidly while other cancers can take years or even decades to form.

Research from the Genome Institute and colleagues suggests chemotherapy may contribute to relapse in some patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Domesticated cats are the most popular pets globally, with approximately 34% of households owning over 88 million cats in the US alone. The cat is an important model organism for biomedical research and it is used in understanding mammalian development, cancer and infectious disease research.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine used whole-genome sequencing to identify a critical mutation in some patients with myelodysplastic syndromes that appears to increase the likelihood they will develop acute myeloid leukemia.

Washington University's Genome Institute has received a $114 million four-year grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) to continue its groundbreaking genomic research.

The Genome Institute is collaborating on a project to sequence the Atlantic Killifish and identify the genes it has evolved to help it survive in extreme conditions.

Researchers at the Genome Institute in collaboration with Dr. Erich Jarvis, Duke University, have sequenced the genome of the American bald eagle – the symbol of the United States of America.

Scientists have completed the largest analysis to date of the genetic mutations underlying ovarian cancer. The research was conducted by scientists at the Genome Institute and elsewhere as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project.

On April 16 a group of women from the Komen St. Louis Research Advocacy Committee joined together at the Genome Institute to learn about genomics and breast cancer. The event gave the committee members an opportunity to learn about the latest in genomic research and understand more about how this emerging field is affecting clinical breast cancer research.

Two new studies highlight the power of sequencing cancer patients' genomes as a diagnostic tool, helping doctors decide the best course of treatment and researchers identify new cancer susceptibility mutations that can be passed from parent to child.

New research indicates that two major genetic upheavals produced thousands of new genes that may have helped drive the evolutionary explosion that led to the rich diversity of present-day flowering plants.

In the single largest cancer genomics investigation reported to date, the Genome Institute researchers and colleagues have sequenced the whole genomes of tumors from 50 breast cancer patients and compared them to the matched DNA of the same patients' healthy cells.

The International Human Microbiome Congress (IHMC) is a yearly meeting where researchers from around the world gather to discuss the human microbiome, the complement of microbes that are present in the body, and its role in human health and disease.

Scientists at the Genome Institute and their collaborators have decoded the DNA of the parasitic worm that causes trichinosis, a disease linked to eating raw or undercooked pork or carnivorous wild game animals, such as bear and walrus.

Dr. Elaine Mardis summarizes her views on sequencing technology and its impact on biomedical research over the last decade in a perspective published in the journal Nature.

An international team of scientists, led by the Genome Institute at Washington University, has decoded, or sequenced, the DNA of a Sumatran orangutan. With this genome as a reference, the scientists then sequenced the genomes of five additional Sumatran and five Bornean orangutans.

An international team of scientists has sequenced the genome of a plant disease-causing organism, revealing that it acts like a "stealth bomber of plant pathogens."

After over a decade at the Genome Institute, Dr. Sandra Clifton is retiring. But before she left, she agreed to answer a few questions about her career in genomics.

Two strains of Anopheles gambiae, a type of mosquito responsible for the majority of malaria transmission in Africa, have evolved such substantial genetic differences that they are becoming different species.

Decoding the DNA of a woman who died of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has led researchers at the Genome Institute and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to a gene that they found to be commonly altered in many patients who died quickly of the disease.

Small genetic differences between individuals help explain why some people have a higher risk than others for developing illnesses such as diabetes or cancer. The 1000 Genomes Project, an international public-private consortium that includes the Genome Institute and a number of other research centers, has published the most comprehensive map of these genetic differences, called variations, estimated to contain approximately 95 percent of the genetic variation of any person on Earth.

The Genome Institute is going pink for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, after being presented with pink panels for one of its Illumina sequencers to celebrate the completion of the Washington University Cancer Genome Initiative.

Photo: Rose Brockhouse (left) and Dr. Elaine Mardis (right) in front of the Genome Institute’s pink Illumina GAIIx sequencer.

The Genome Institute is involved in a number of cancer genome sequencing projects. Here is an overview of these projects.

The platypus is one of very few mammals that produce venom. Camilla Whittington is a visiting Fulbright Scholar who is studying the genetics of this venom with the hope of finding potentially useful drug compounds.

Nearly all animals make sounds instinctively, but baby songbirds learn to sing in virtually the same way human infants learn to speak: by imitating a parent.

George Weinstock is a professor of genetics at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as Associate Director of the University's Genome Institute. Weinstock came to Washington University from Baylor College of Medicine, where he was a professor in the departments of molecular and human genetics and molecular virology and microbiology, and co-director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center.

With a duckbilled face and a round, furry body, there is arguably no mammalian species with as strange a mixture of characteristics as the platypus. And it has the genes to match its odd appearance.

A self-described "jack of all trades geneticist," Robert Fulton, Group Leader of Sequencing Improvement for the Genome Institute, began his career by happenstance.

According to Dr. George Weinstock, Associate Director of the Genome Institute and leader of work on the Human Microbiome project here, “you are crawling with microorganisms.” Now before you go and try to scrub them off, you should know these minute creatures are here to stay.