Week in Review: April 13–17

Sequencing tumors and normal tissue; gut microbes, metabolism, and circadian clock; oxytocin and mother mice; WHO calls for data-sharing

| 2 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00
Share

SONYA PARPART-LIResearchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Baltimore-based firm Personal Genome Diagnostics have shown that sequencing a patient’s tumor samples alone may not be enough to identify cancer-associated mutations. By also sequencing the patient’s non-tumor tissue, the researchers could separate germline mutations from tumor-specific ones. Their results were published in Science Translational Medicine this week (April 15).

“This paper really emphasizes how important it is to compare an individual patient’s tumor [DNA] to that individual patient’s [normal sequence],” said oncologist George Demetri of Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who was not involved in the study.

“One of the most basic aspects of any scientific approach is to have an analysis and a very good control,” said study coauthor Victor Velculescu of Johns Hopkins, “and this fundamental rule is being violated essentially by a lot of folks doing this type of analysis.”

WIKIMEDIA, RAMAMicrobes in the guts of mice produce metabolites in diurnal patterns that align with the animals’ circadian clock, scientists from the University of Chicago and their colleagues showed in Cell Host & Microbe this week (April 16). And a high-fat diet can disturb these diurnal metabolite production patterns, affecting the mice’s metabolism. In their paper, the team also proposed that “disturbances of host-microbe circadian networks may promote diet-induced obesity.”

“The finding that our microbiome also exhibits diurnal rhythms is interesting since virtually ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Tracy Vence

    This person does not yet have a bio.
Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo
New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

Sino

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio