In the news
Nature news & Views: "Piercing Insights" by Hagan Bayley Jun 2009
In the 4 June 09 edition of Nature (subscription needed), Hagan Bayley writes on the significance of understanding the structure of pore-forming proteins. "Pore forming proteins are deadly biological weapons that punch holes in target-cell membranes. The structure of the pore formed by a bacterial toxin suggests that diverse pore formers have similar assembly pathways."
The genetics of Swine Flu May 2009
The understanding of the structure of the swine flu genome is integral to the plans to defend against it. The virus's 14kb genome was initially sequenced in mid April, however additional information on variants of the virus is being added to GenBank.
In this article in Science, the CDC's Ruben Donis speaks about the genetics of H1N1. The New Scientist gives a good overview of the is...
NEJM: the value of Genome Wide Association Studies Apr 2009
This week, the New England Journal of Medicine has published on Genome Wide Association Studies. A Review article summarises the progress made over recent years. Two Perspective articles contemplate these studies' usefulness. One argues that the SNPs uncovered by these studies do not have enough relevance to be useful clinical predictors in medicine today.
Nature Nanotechnology paper reported in the London Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Bio IT World, GenomeWeb/In Sequence, more Feb 2009
A paper published online today in Nature Nanotechnology has shown that nanopores can be used for highly accurate, continuous recognition of DNA bases including methylated cytosine. The work, completed in summer 2008, marks a significant progress towards the first label free single molecule DNA sequencing system. Click to read coverage in the Times, the New York Times,