Cetuximab is a targeted monoclonal antibody against the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) which is used therapeutically for the treatment of KRAS wild-type colorectal cancer (CRC). The Cetuximab sensitive KRAS wild-type CRC cell line NCI-H508 has been treated with a fixed concentration of ENU for 24 hours and then selected with Cetuximab until drug resistant clones were ready to be picked and grown up as sub-clones of the parental cell line. These will have genes causally implicated in cancer sequenced to identify common point mutations in multiple independently derived drug resistant clones as a forward genetic screen for mechanisms of resistance to Cetuximab in CRC
In this study we analyse the evolution of human melanoma from early to late disease in patients by sampling their tumours at multiple sites and times. Whole exome and genome sequencing data from tumour samples reveals only limited gain of point mutations generally, with net mutational loss in some metastases. In contrast, melanoma evolution is dominated by whole genome doubling and large-scale aneuploidy, in which widespread loss of heterozygosity sculpts the burden of point mutations, neoantigens and structural variants even in treatment-naïve and primary cutaneous melanomas in some patients. These results imply that dysregulation of genomic integrity is a key driver of selective clonal advantage during melanoma progression.
Patient-Derived Tumour Xenografts (PDTXs) have emerged as the pre-clinical models that best represent clinical tumour diversity and intra-tumour heterogeneity. The molecular characterization of PDTXs using High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS) is essential; however, the presence of mouse stroma is challenging for HTS data analysis. Indeed, the high homology between the two genomes results in a proportion of mouse reads being mapped as human. In this study we generated Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data from samples with known mixtures of mouse and human DNA or RNA.
Somatic mosaicism (SM), referring to the presence of somatic mutations in sub-populations of cells within healthy individuals, is associated with an increased risk of a variety of diseases, including cancer. Blood is at particularly high risk of SM, given its rapid turnover and functionally- heterogeneous cell-type composition. While the roles of point mutations and large-scale rearrangements in blood SM have been scrutinised in recent years, the functional impact of mosaic structural variants (mSVs) remains poorly understood. Using haplotype-resolved single-cell multi-omics, we explored the mSV landscape of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs).
ICI-pneumonitis is a frequent serious adverse event of cancer immunotherapy hinging on a cell-mediated immune response, though the exact pathophysiology is currently unknown. Using single-cell transcriptomics, an enrichment of pathogenic (TBX21, RORC, IFNG, IL17A, CSF2 expressing) T-helper 17.1 cells and pro-inflammatory (TNF, IL1B, IL6, IL23A expressing) monocytes was identified in ICI-pneumonitis bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, putatively engaging in a feedforward inflammatory loop. This finding yields several novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of ICI-pneumonitis. Most notably repurposing anti-IL-23 merits further research as a potential efficacious and safe treatment for ICI-pneumonitis.
The Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome is characterized by agenesis of the uterus and upper part of the vagina in females with normal ovarian function. The cause of the disease is still enigmatic. Here, we developed organoid cultures from endometrium found in uterine rudiment horns of MRKH patients. Phenotypically they share great similarity between healthy control organoids and are fully hormone responsive. Transcriptome analysis using RNA-seq identified possible disease-causing pathways altered in MRKH patients during development of the female reproductive tract. Thus, the organoid cultures provide a powerful research model for further insight into disease-causing alterations.
The Family Heart Study (FamHS) was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). It was begun in 1992 with the ascertainment of 1,200 families, half randomly sampled, and half selected because of an excess of coronary heart disease (CHD) or risk factor abnormalities as compared with age- and sex-specific population rates (Higgins et al. 1996). The families, with approximately 6,000 individuals, were sampled on the basis of information on probands from four population-based parent studies: the Framingham Heart Study, the Utah Family Tree Study, and two Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) centers (Minneapolis, and Forsyth County, NC). A broad range of phenotypes were assessed at a clinic examination in broad domains of CHD, atherosclerosis, cardiac and vascular function, inflammation and hemostasis, lipids and lipoproteins, blood pressure, diabetes and insulin resistance, pulmonary function, and anthropometry (FamHS Visit 1). Approximately 8 years later, study participants belonging to the largest pedigrees were invited for a second clinical exam (FamHS Visit 2). A total of 2,756 Caucasian subjects in 508 extended families were examined. A two-phase design was adopted for the genome wide association (GWA) study. In phase-1, 1007 subjects were chosen, equally distributed between the upper and lower quartile of age- and sex-adjusted values for coronary artery calcification, assessed by CT scan in Visit 2. These subjects were chosen to be largely unrelated; 34% of the subjects were from unique families, while 200 other subjects had 1 or more siblings selected into the sample, yielding a sample of 465 unrelated subjects. The remaining family members (N=1749) were genotyped in the phase-2 for replication of the top hits from the phase-1. The results presented here represent those for the analysis of the phase-1 case-control sample for variables assessed in FamHS Visit 1 (from 1992 to 1995) and for the variables assessed in FamHS Visit 2 (from 2002 to 2003). All subjects were typed on the Illumina HumMap 550 chip (Phase 1 genotype). Of these, 33 (3.3%) were excluded due to technical errors, call rates below 98%, and discrepancies between reported sex and sex-diagnostic markers. The final sample of 974 subjects have Visit 2 phenotypes, approximately 100 of these do not have Visit 1 phenotypes. There was no significant plate-to-plate variation in allele frequencies. The covariate adjustments were performed separately by sex using cubic polynomial age and clinical centers, and retaining the terms in the stepwise regression analysis that were significant at the 5% level. Extreme outliers (>4 SD from the mean) were set aside, temporarily, for the adjustments. The final phenotypes were computed for all individuals using the best mean regression models and standardizing to 0 mean and unit variance. The FamHS has contributed GWA results in many phenotype domains (antropometric and adiposity, atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, lipid profile, diabetes and glicemic traits, metabolic syndrome etc) to meta-analyses and various consortia, including Heard-Costa et al. 2009, Köttgen et al. 2010, Teslovich et al. 2010, Nettleton et al. 2010, Lango et al. 2010, Heid et al. 2010, Speliotes et al. 2010, Dupuis et al. 2010, Kraja et al. 2011.
Sequencing data from Breast Cancer samples
Purified plasma cells from bone marrow of Pooled healthy donors
