Latest Genome Stories

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- 23andMe, the leading personal genetics company, today announced that it has delivered its first round of 510(k) documentation to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since its 2006 inception, 23andMe largely created the direct-to-consumer market for genetic analysis. As a leader in personal genetics, the company is now the first in the industry to announce it is working towards FDA clearance. The FDA will review the filing...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A recent genetics study has shown evidence that another branch of the human evolutionary tree may have existed alongside Neanderthals, fueling the ongoing feud between paleontologists and geneticists. According to the study published this week in the journal Cell, a team of geneticists led by Joseph Lachance and Sarah A. Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania found DNA evidence of an interbreeding with an unknown archaic species of...

A University of Sheffield academic is helping a team of citizen scientists to carry out crucial research into European genetic heritage. Citizen Scientists are not required to have a scientific background or training, but instead they possess a passion for the subject and are increasingly being empowered by the scientific community to get involved in research. Dr Andy Grierson, from the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), has helped a team of...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Life Technologies Corporation announced it plans to compete for the $10 million X PRIZE by being the first to rapidly and accurately sequence 100 whole human genomes at $1,000 a pop. The healthy competition will help jump start the world's first clinical standard that will transform genome sequencing into usable medical information to improve diagnostics and treatments. The team competing will use the company's new bench top Ion...

A new technique will allow plant breeders to introduce valuable crop traits even without access to the full genome sequence of that crop. The technique, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, links important agronomic traits in crop plants with active regions of the genome. Instead of requiring knowledge of the crop's complete genome, it identifies only expressed genes. "For many crop plants, markers are still lacking because of the complexity of some plants' genomes and the...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online In what is being called "a breakthrough effort for computational biology," researchers from a pair of US universities have successfully completed a software model of an organism's entire lifespan. The research, which was led by Stanford University Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Markus Covert, used data obtained from over 900 previous scientific papers in order to account for every molecular interaction that occurs during...

BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, announced today that it has successfully developed a new filtering tool, PDXomics, which performs accurate and specific classification of the mixed reads derived from the host and tumor xenografts. Through the full utilization of this robust tool, researchers could develop the specific patient-derived xenografts (PDX) and advance the oncology drug discovery, biomarker development and their future applications. Xenograft models serve as an...

LEXINGTON, Ky., July 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Transposagen announced that XTN(TM) site-specific nucleases targeting each gene in the human genome are now available. Utilizing the FLASH(TM) high-throughput system (FLASH assembly of TALENs for high-throughput genome editing. Nature Biotechnology 30, 460-465 (2012)), Transposagen can produce a site-specific nuclease targeting nearly any gene in any genome with the fastest delivery time in the industry. The XTN(TM) site-specific...

John Neumann for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online With the growing accessibility of our human genome increasing all the time, the day may not be far off when we carry our personal genome around like we carry a driver’s license now, according to a recent Telegraph report. Professor Armand Leroi, of Imperial College London, claims that with the falling costs of DNA testing, it will be common for young people to pay to access their entire genetic code within the next five to ten...

New Open Access Publication to Highlight Microbiome Research in Humans and the Environment BALTIMORE, July 11, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two prominent microbial genome scientists have launched a new peer-reviewed publication focusing on microbiome research in environmental, agricultural, and biomedical areas. Jacques Ravel, Ph.D., from the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute for Genome Sciences and Eric Wommack, Ph.D., from the University of Delaware are the...