DNA

By sequencing the genome of a mouse with cancer, researchers at the School of Medicine have uncovered mutations that also drive cancer in humans.

Scientists have decoded the DNA of the parasitic worm that causes trichinosis, a disease linked to eating raw or undercooked pork or carnivorous wild game animals, such as bear and walrus.

An international team of scientists, led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has decoded the DNA of a Sumatran orangutan. With this genome as a reference, the scientists then sequenced the genomes of five additional Sumatran and five Bornean orangutans, they report in the journal Nature.

A new study shows that the environment interacts with DNA in ways that are difficult to predict, even in simple organisms like single-celled yeast, which complicates the prospects for personalized medicine. 

Decoding the DNA of a woman who died of acute myeloid leukemia has led Washington University researchers to a gene that they found to be commonly altered in many patients who died quickly of the disease.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have scanned the entire genome of mice for genes that help build photoreceptors, the light-sensing cells of the eye. The results have already helped researchers identify the gene that causes a form of retinitis pigmentosa, a type of inherited blindness in humans.

As part of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and their colleagues have decoded the genomes of 178 microbes from the human body, they report in the journal Science.

Using powerful DNA sequencing technology to decode the genomes of cancer patients, scientists at the School of Medicine are getting an unprecedented look at the genetic basis of a highly lethal breast cancer that disproportionately affects younger women and those who are African-American, they report in the journal Nature.

Nearly all animals make sounds instinctively, but baby songbirds learn to sing in virtually the same way human infants learn to speak: by imitating a parent. Now, an international team of scientists, led by the School of Medicine, has decoded the genome of a songbird — the Australian zebra finch — to reveal intriguing clues about the genetic basis and evolution of vocal learning. 

The School of Medicine has received a $14.3 million grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to expand its high-powered data center for genomics. The facility’s sophisticated computer networks store massive amounts of genomic data used to identify the genetic origins of cancer and other diseases.