. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Medical
. . . Journal
. . . -.Houston
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
May 2016
Page 5
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
TECHNOLOGY
Researchers at The University of Texas MD
Anderson Cancer Center have announced
a new method for detecting DNA mutations
in a single cancer cell versus current
technology that analyzes millions of cells
which they believe could have important
applications for cancer diagnosis and
treatment. The results are published a
recent online issue of Nature Methods.
E x i s t i n g
t e c h n o l o g y,
known as nextgeneration
sequencing
(NGS), measures
genomes derived
from millions of
cells versus the
newer method
for
single-cell
sequencing,
called Monovar.
Developed
by
Ken Chen, Ph.D.
MD Anderson
researchers,
Monovar allows scientists to examine data
First computer program developed to detect
DNA mutations in single cancer cells
from multiple single cells. The study was,
in part, funded by MD Anderson’s Moon
Shots Program, an unprecedented effort to
significantly reduce
deaths from cancer.
This led to the development of newer
technology, called single cell sequencing
(SCS), that has had a major impact in
Cutline: Ken Chen,
Ph.D.
“NGS technologies
have vastly improved
our understanding of
the human genome
and its variation
in
diseases
such
as
cancer,”
said
Ken Chen, Ph.D.,
assistant
professor
of
Bioinformatics
and Computational
Biology
and
coauthor of the Nature
Methods
article.
“However,
because
NGS measures large
numbers of cells,
genomic
variations
within tissue samples are often masked.”
many areas of biology, including cancer
research,
neurobiology,
microbiology,
and immunology, and has greatly
improved understanding of certain tumor
characteristics in cancer.
Monovar
improves
further
on the new SCS’s
computational tools
which scientists found
“lacking” by more
accurately detecting
slight alterations in
DNA makeup known
as single nucleotide
variants (SNVs).
“To improve the SNVs
in SCS datasets, we
developed Monovar,”
said Nicholas Navin,
Ph.D.,
assistant
professor of Genetics
and co-author of the
paper. “Monovar is
a novel statistical
method
able
to
leverage data from
multiple single cells
to discover SNVs
and provides highly
detailed genetic data.” t
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