BCM-HGSC in the News
Broad genetic testing for childhood cancer patients can pinpoint cancer causes and identify potential treatments - (Wednesday, January 27, 2016)
Combined whole exome tumor and blood sequencing in pediatric cancer patients revealed mutations that could help explain the cause of cancer or have the potential to impact clinical cancer care in 40 percent of patients in a study led by researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Cancer Center.
These findings point toward the usefulness of broad-based testing of both tumor and blood samples for children diagnosed with solid tumors, say study senior co-authors Dr. Sharon Plon, professor of pediatrics at Baylor, and Dr. Will Parsons, associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor and Texas Children’s Cancer Center.
The study, which appears in the current issue of JAMA Oncology, is part of the ongoing Baylor College of Medicine Advancing Sequencing in Childhood Cancer Care (BASIC3) project funded through a $6.6 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute and the National Cancer Institute.
“This is an important study and a powerful illustration of how genomic data can be effectively used by skilled physicians in a clinical context,” said Dr. Richard Gibbs, professor of molecular and human genetics and director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor. Gibbs and Dr. Christine Eng, professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor, lead the study’s efforts to perform genomic testing -- conducted at the WGL -- and evaluate results.
› Read press release
› Read article in JAMA Oncology
National Human Genome Research Institute funds Baylor centers for common, rare diseases - (Wednesday, January 13, 2016)
Baylor College of Medicine centers will play major roles in newly announced National Human Genome Research Institute DNA sequencing programs designed to understand the genomics of both common and rare diseases.
Baylor College of Medicine’s Human Genome Sequencing Center was named one of four Centers for Common Disease Genomics. The center, under the leadership of Dr. Richard Gibbs, will receive a four-year $60 million grant to focus on the genomics of heart and blood vessel and metabolic diseases as well as neuropsychiatric disorders.
“2016 marks the 20th year since the inception of the Human Genome Sequencing Center and its continuing funding by the NHGRI,” said Gibbs. “We will continue the push to translate genomic discovery into medicine.”
› Read news release from Baylor College of Medicine
› Read news coverage from Houston Chronicle
Study finds genes associated with bleeding disorder caused by low platelets - (Sunday, December 6, 2015)
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have found genes associated with an autoimmune bleeding disorder called chronic immune thrombocytopenia, or ITP.
Dr. Jenny Despotovic, assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor and Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, presented the research Dec. 5 at the American Society of Hematology 57th Annual Meeting.
Baylor College of Medicine’s Human Genome Sequencing Center performed whole exome sequencing of DNA samples from the North American Chronic ITP Registry and the Platelet Disorders Center at the Weill-Cornell Medical Center. This work was done as a collaboration with the ITP Consortium of North America.
Genome of Sézary syndrome points to potential treatment targets - (Monday, November 9, 2015)
A genomic analysis of 37 patients with Sézary syndrome, a rare form of T-cell lymphoma that affects the skin and causes large numbers of atypical T-lymphocytes to circulate, reveals mutations in genes that affect T-cell signaling and those that interfere with cell cycle checkpoints that govern cell division, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in a report in the journal Nature Genetics.
“These kinds of studies are taking us to the doorstep of personal genomics,” said Dr. David Wheeler, professor in the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center and a corresponding author of the paper.
“This research is important because it identifies genes that may be important in this rare cancer,” said Dr. Linghua Wang, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor and lead author of the study.
› Read the press release
› Read article in Nature Genetics
Analysis of genetic neurologic diseases identify genes that affect brain structure, function - (Sunday, November 8, 2015)
In a study that appears in the journal Neuron, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine -- including those from the Human Genome Sequencing Center -- and a large swath of Turkish medical professionals evaluated the genetics behind brain disorders and malformations. They found variants of genes known to cause such problems and new mutations in genes not known to be involved before. Along with that, they identified structural deviations such as the duplications or deletions known as copy number variations in different chromosomes.
› Read the press release
› Read article in Neuron
› Video abstract
Genomic structural variation catalogue key to unlocking diseases - (Wednesday, September 30, 2015)
An international consortium, including the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center, sequenced and analyzed the genomes of more than 2,500 individuals from 26 populations and mapped more than 68,000 structural variants in the individuals. Dr. Fuli Yu, assistant professor with BCM-HGSC, discusses the newly released report from the final phase of the 1000 Genomes Project and the resulting technologies -- including those pioneered at HGSC -- that have improved the identification of structural variants.
Read related articles in Nature:
› A global reference for human genetic variation
› An integrated map of structural variation in 2,504 human genomes
Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study names Dr. Richard Gibbs as Faculty Fellow - (Tuesday, September 22, 2015)
Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center, was announced as one of 13 new Faculty Fellows of the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study in recognition of his work in the field of genetics. Gibbs will collaborate with faculty-researchers and graduate students in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.
› Read announcement from Texas A&M
The Genomics Revolution - (Tuesday, September 15, 2015)
In this article from the Texas Medical Center News website, Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of BCM-HGSC, discusses the advances in genomics research and the opportunities for collaboration between TMC member institutions through the TMC Genomics Institute.
Baylor genome sequencing experts tapped for national effort incorporating genome information, electronic medical records - (Thursday, September 3, 2015)
HGSC has received an $8.39 million, four-year grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute to help support a large research effort that seeks to incorporate DNA sequence information into electronic medical records.
The effort, called the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) network, focuses on understanding the genomic basis of disease and tailoring medical care to individual patients based on their genomic differences. The Human Genome Sequencing Center will serve as one of two genome sequencing and genotyping facilities and will perform DNA sequence generation on 12,500 patients.
Mapping cancer's genome - (Thursday, August 6, 2015)
HGSC is a member of The Cancer Genome Atlas project, an ambitious government-funded consortium created to identify cancer-causing genes. The Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, which conducted all tissue banking for the samples, provided this update in its 2015 annual report, which highlights the work that led to sequencing tumors of the pancreas, colon, kidney, breast and bladder.
› Read the story in the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center Annual Report