JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITYThe rate at which stem cells divide could help explain variability in cancer rates among adult tissues, researchers from Johns Hopkins University reported in Science this week (December 1). Overall, the team found, the greater the cumulative number of stem cell divisions in a tissue, the higher the cancer rate.
“The finding is remarkable,” Tom Hudson, president and scientific director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in Toronto, Canada, who was not involved in the work told The Scientist. “It is rather difficult to disagree that the correlation is very strong.”
FLICKR, KEVIN MACKENZIE, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEENIt’s no surprise that errors exist in public databases like the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s GenBank. But what might come as a surprise is just how difficult identifying and cleaning up these mistakes can be. This week, The Scientist viewed the issue through the lens of experts working to automate the processes of identifying and fixing mislabeled sequences and other errors. Among other things, researchers aim to build a front-end solution, so that errors are caught before they’re posted.
“Rather than the database looking at each record as it comes in at the back end, then having to get back to the submitter, if we get these consensus models ahead of time . . . ultimately, you can see how this would save us a lot of time,” said NCBI Director David Lipman.
WIKIMEDIA, GAVIN SCHAEFERH7N9 avian influenza precursor H9N2 became significantly fitter as it circulated among chickens for years before it reassorted with H7 and N9 viruses, researchers from China Agricultural University and their colleagues reported in PNAS this week (December 29).
