求找一项最尖端的生物技术和一个代表人物及其课题组.任务.成就.如题...越详细越好..分可以追

求找一项最尖端的生物技术和一个代表人物及其课题组.任务.成就.如题...越详细越好..分可以追
求找一项最尖端的生物技术和一个代表人物及其课题组.任务.成就.
如题...越详细越好..分可以追

求找一项最尖端的生物技术和一个代表人物及其课题组.任务.成就.如题...越详细越好..分可以追
Nature：ChIA-PET技术证实DNA立体结构中染色体相互作用
来自新加坡基因组研究院（Genome Institute of Singapore,GIS）的研究人员近期报道了一种分析基因组三维折叠和环套状态下,基因表达和调控的新技术.这一研究成果公布在Nature杂志上.
这种新技术即ChIA-PET (Chromatin Interaction Analysis using Paired End Tag sequencing),其中PET是一种革新性的基因测序方法,这种方法能帮助解决新一代测序平台阅读长度较短的缺点问题,利用多种应用的配对末端标签测序——PET测序,从超高通量测序的常DNA片段末端引出短的配对标签,从而就能精确地绘制基因组.
领导这项研究的是GIS资深科学家阮义军（Yijun Ruan）,阮义军博士曾领导新加坡基因组研究院研究小组获得新加坡国家科学和技术奖,这一奖项是新加坡最高科学荣誉.其研究小组获奖原因是在配对端点双标记测序技术创新上取得开拓性研究成果,该技术可以用于全面展现人类基因组和转录特性.
文章的第一作者是GIS阮义军研究的Melissa Fullwood博士,他说,“许多研究都表明远离基因的基因组区域在调控疾病方面的重要作用”,“这到底是如何实现的呢?一些科学家提出假设,认为染色质相互作用,即DNA上的三维折叠帮助这些距离远的区域调控基因表达.”
自从科学家们发现人类基因组是通过三维立体的形式,而不是二维线性的形式进行组织的,他们就开始寻找分析这种三维结构中基因活性调控的有效方法.
在这篇文章中,GIS的研究人员利用ChIA-PET技术成功应对了这一挑战,证明了基因组中确实存在全基因组宽度的长区域染色质相互作用.
人类基因组功能元件的深入理解,需要对个体基因组和染色体结构的详细巡查和比对,这就需要对DNA测序的通量和花费进行改进.新一代测序平台将是低花费和高通量的,但其阅读长度较短.这一限制的直接和普遍认可的解决方法就是多种应用的配对末端标签测序,简称为PET测序,从超高通量测序的常DNA片段末端引出短的配对标签.PET测序能够精确地绘制参考基因组,区别PET所在DNA片段的基因组边界和鉴定靶DNA片段.PET测序法已经发展为转录组,转录因子结合位点和染色体结构分析.PET测序技术的独特优点在于能够暴露DNA片段两末端的连接处.由于该优点,PET测序可以解释非传统的融合转录物,染色体结构变化,甚至分子相互作用.
利用这一方法,研究人员发现了乳腺癌细胞中,人类基因组是如何应答雌激素信号,进行基因表达调控的.GIS另外一位研究人员,劳伦斯伯克力国家实验室基因组部主任Edward Rubin表示,“我们利用这种新方法回答了癌症中的一些基础问题,结果发现基因组范围内的DNA高级相互作用能解释一些之前研究中的矛盾情况,这将有利于发展出对抗激素的治疗乳腺癌新方法”.
文章来源于Nature 462,58-64 (5 November 2009)

Craig Venter Has Algae Biofuel in Synthetic Genomics’ Pipeline
Juha-Pekka Tikka 6/4/09
When renowned genome scientist J. Craig Venter spoke at San Diego’s Connect’s Innovation Summit two mont...

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Craig Venter Has Algae Biofuel in Synthetic Genomics’ Pipeline
Juha-Pekka Tikka 6/4/09
When renowned genome scientist J. Craig Venter spoke at San Diego’s Connect’s Innovation Summit two months ago, he focused mostly on creating genetically engineered microbes that consume coal to produce natural gas. But a review of Venter’s recent presentations and other information suggests that Synthetic Genomics, the San Diego startup he co-founded, also has a major biofuels initiative underway, as well as other revolutionary projects.
So when Venter said in April, “we’re not too far away from making an announcement to scale this up,” it’s possible he was just speaking generally about an industrial-scale project based on a synthetic organism, and not about the coal project in particular.
Either way, such an announcement could represent the first time a synthetic organism created from transplanted genes moves from the research laboratory to an industrial-scale operation. “Over the next 20 years, synthetic genomics is going to become the standard for making anything,” Venter said in a 2007 article in NewScientist magazine. He says it will become possible to add different characteristics, to or take them away, from almost everything. In the future, Venter says one DNA-based species (human) will be able to sit down at a computer to create another.
As a result, the first commercialization project that Synthetic Genomics undertakes with a major corporate partner may well involve algae that have been genetically engineered to produce biofuels. Synthetic Genomics’ team already has genetically optimized an algae species so that almost half of the organism’s mass consists of lipids, a broad group of naturally occurring molecules that include fats, waxes, sterols and other energy storage compounds. Now the team is enhancing the organism further to make even more lipids. Such algae would serve as a biofuel feedstock.
Venter has described “the new algae” as a kind of biochemical factory. In his Joint Genome Institute keynote speech in March, Venter said “the new algae” is something that “secretes whatever lipid size we want to engineer. This changes algae from what everybody’s been looking at as a farming problem into a manufacturing problem. So we are trying to get algae to go into a continuous production mode, pumping up these lipids, that come out in a pure form.”
Two years ago, Synthetic Genomics struck a long-term research and development deal with BP, the global energy conglomerate previously known as British Petroleum to develop cleaner energy production. BP has also been a strategic investor in Synthetic Genomics—even though Venter has stated that he wants the company to replace the petrochemical industry in ten years.
Many aspects of Venter’s algae project seem fanciful. He has described a future where people produce their own biofuel in their backyards, a self-sufficiency scenario he sees as a major source of future fuel production. He envisions possibly millions of “algae micro refineries,” in neighborhoods throughout the United States and beyond. Genetically engineered algae needs sunlight and carbon dioxide, and then secretes a liquid that “can basically be used right away as biodiesel,” according to Venter. The only hardware needed would be stuff like sinks, filters, barrels and pipes.
In a Popular Mechanics magazine interview last year, Venter said the goal at Synthetic Genomics is to have “multiple things on the market within five years.” In a TED speech in February 2008 he estimated that the team would have “the first fourth-generation fuel out in about eighteen months.”
Privately-held Synthetic Genomics was founded in 2005 by Venter, who serves as chairman and CEO, Nobel Laureate Hamilton Smith, who serves as scientific director, and former General Counsel David Kiernan. Its board includes Biotechonomy CEO Juan Enriquez, Draper Fisher Jurvetson managing director Steve Jurvetson, Pulsar CEO Alfonso Romo, and Raydiance CEO Barry Schuler. In 2005 Draper Fisher Jurvetson provided $30 million in Series A round of venture funding. Last year it was reported they were in the process of raising another round, in the range of $100 million to $200 million.

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