THE SCIENCE OF PROGRESS

At HudsonAlpha we engage the power of biotechnology to improve life.  Implementing a three-fold mission of genomic research, economic development and educational outreach, HudsonAlpha creates the environment and conditions to nurture life-affirming "Eureka!" moments in the lab, marketplace and classroom.

Relative reference: Foxtail millet offers clues for assembling the switchgrass genome

News Outlet: 
U.S. Dept. of Energy Joint Genome Institute
Date published: 
May 14, 2012

Arranging DNA fragments into a genome sequence that scientists can interpret is a challenge often compared to assembling a puzzle, except there is no box to provide an idea of what the picture is even supposed to be. Sometimes there's guidance in the form of other publicly-available DNA sequences from related organisms that can be used to guide the assembly process, but its usefulness depends on how closely related any two sequences are to one another. For example, a reference genome might be so distantly related from the one being assembled, it would be akin to comparing a Model-T to a contemporary hybrid car.

The beads and string of DNA

You may have heard the analogy “beads on a string” to describe genetic code. Two new papers from the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology report that both the beads and string contribute to how genetic code relates to human health.

Envision DNA as a very long string, wrapped around millions of beads made of proteins. To regulate genes, cells use thousands of different proteins.  Imagine the beads are made of thousands of combinations of different colors and designs. The technique used in these papers, chromatin immunoprecipitation or ChIP-seq, allows researchers to go in and pick out the specific protein-DNA complexes, or individual beads from this huge jumble, that they want to study.

HudsonAlpha Seminar Series

May 30 at noon in the HudsonAlpha auditorium

James Galagan, Ph.D.

associate director, microbial genome analysis, Broad Institute

Galagan's research is focused on systems biology of microbial organisms, specifically Mycobacterium tuberculosis - the causative agent of tuberculosis- and the fungus Neurospora crassa.  The Galagan lab is an interdisciplinary group that combines computational biology, genomics and experimental lab work.

More information on the series.

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