10963 results for "fc 26 coins u7buy Visit Buyfc26coins.com Megkaptam az FC 26 érméket a garantált idő előtt. Mindig bonuszként!.HNTf"

in 29.11 milliseconds.

• Single Chromatin Fiber Profiling in the Human Brain

  We developed a human postmortem brain-applicable ‘Fiber-seq' protocol for genome-scale, PCR-free single molecule sequencing of on average 8-10kb long chromatin fibers, to map nucleosome positioning and nucleosome-depleted regions which include, for example, active promoters and enhancers. We generated two Fiber-seq reference sets, one from sorted non-neuronal NeuN- prefrontal cortex (PFC) nuclei from a 32 year old female donor, with total of 11,143,795 reads/fibers, and median of 30-fold genomic coverage. The other reference set was generated on sorted prefrontal NeuN+ neurons, from two 24 year old brain donors (1 female/1 male), with a combined total read/fiber count of 4,749,556 and median of 20-fold genomic coverage. Each of the peaks in the Fiber-seq libraries seq signal correlated with the ATAC peak levels in the neuronal and non-neuronal ATAC-seq libraries, respectively (promoters, clusters 1, 3; NeuN+, r = 0.574; NeuN-, r=0.683, PHowever, Fiber-seq detected 19,978 highly significant peaks which, while showing some non-significant/near-background ATAC-Seq alignments, lacked a corresponding site-specific enrichment in conventional short-read ATAC- and ChIP-seq datasets. However, 60% of these peaks were in repetitive DNA elements. Therefore, long read single chromatin fiber sequencing, which exceed the base pair length of conventional short-read libraries by two orders of magnitude, could capture many actively regulated repeat elements at the site of specific gene loci, that otherwise would remain unmappable by conventional ATAC-, and histone- ChiP-seq.

  Study phs003771

• Digitalis Investigation Group (DIG-BioLINCC)

  Data Access NOTE: Please refer to the “Authorized Access” section below for information about how access to the data from this accession differs from many other dbGaP accessions. Objectives To determine the effect of increasing age on mortality, hospitalizations, and digoxin side effects in patients with heart failure (HF), and to determine whether the effect of digoxin on clinical outcomes varies as a function of age. Background The incidence and prevalence of HF increase with advancing age, but there are limited data on the clinical course and response to specific interventions in elderly patients with HF. Participants A total of 302 centers in the United States and Canada enrolled 7,788 patients between February 1991 and September 1993. Design The Digitalis Investigation Group (DIG) study was a prospective, randomized clinical trial involving 7,788 patients with HF randomized to digoxin or placebo and followed for an average of 37 months. Interactions between age and the following clinical outcomes were examined: total mortality, all-cause hospitalizations, HF hospitalizations, the composite of HF death or HF hospitalizations, hospitalization for suspected digoxin toxicity and withdrawal from therapy because of side effects. Conclusions Increasing age is associated with progressively worse clinical outcomes in patients with HF. However, the beneficial effects of digoxin in reducing all-cause admissions, HF admissions, and HF death or hospitalization are independent of age. Thus, digoxin remains a useful agent to the adjunctive treatment of HF due to impaired left ventricular systolic function in patients of all ages.

  Study phs003872

• Cancer Moonshot Biobank

  The National Cancer Institute initiated the Cancer Moonshot Biobank to accelerate research through the collection and distribution of biospecimens for key research efforts. The Biobank will engage with over one thousand cancer patients, being treated with standard-of-care therapies, for longitudinal biospecimen and data collection. Cancer patients will be enrolled into the study from a diverse participant population engaged at medical institutions throughout the U.S. The biospecimens will be distributed to qualified scientists to accelerate research progress. The Biobank program, working closely with Leidos Biomedical, Inc. (LBR), will partner with community hospitals and other medical institutions, designated as Biospecimen Source Sites (BSS), to engage and consent eligible participants and collect biospecimens and associated clinical data; work with a central Biospecimen Core Resource (BCR) to support biospecimen collection, processing and storage activities and perform pathology quality control; work with LBR's Molecular Characterization (MoCha) lab to perform clinical tumor molecular characterization assays and return results to patients and their physicians; and make the biospecimens and associated data available to researchers to accelerate cancer research progress. Return of clinical results, a dedicated Patient and Provider Engagement (PPE) website, electronic informed consent, local participant engagement projects, and an embedded ethical, legal and social issues sub-study will together support patient and provider engagement in the program. Cancer Moonshot Biobank imaging data is being made available in The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) on a release schedule that is coordinated with the program releases of data to dbGaP. The imaging data can be found at the following link: Cancer Moonshot Biobank Imaging

  Study phs002192

• Singel-cell RNA sequencing and CUT&RUN sequencing of human RUNX2-deficient osteoblasts

  Runx2 is a master regulator of bone formation, and its dysfunction causes cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD) in humans. When iPS cells were generated from patients with CCD and Runx2-deficient iPS cells were generated using gene-editing techniques, abnormal laminopathy-like nuclei were observed. Runx2-deficient cells showed reduced Lamin A/C expression, but not protein levels. However, in Runx2-deficient cells, both the gene expression and protein levels of Nesprin-1 were reduced, perinuclear actin fibers were sparser, and nuclear stiffness was reduced. Forced expression of Lamin A/C increased nuclear stiffness but did not improve nuclear morphology. In contrast, the induction of Nesprin-1 expression alone normalized nuclear stiffness and restored nuclear morphology and perinuclear actin distribution. In Runx2-null cells, mechanical stress-induced phosphorylation of emerin was not observed. In contrast, forced expression of nesprin-1 in Runx2-null cells resulted in phosphorylation of emerin, indicating the restoration of intracellular tension. These observations were confirmed by atomic force microscopy. Therefore, the intracellular tension was inferred to pull the nuclear membrane into its normal shape. CUT&RUN assay and single RNA-seq analysis showed that an aberrant nuclear membrane caused loss of nuclear lamina gene regulation machinery, making the progression of normal osteogenic differentiation impossible; however, supplementation with Nesprin-1 restored gene regulation mechanisms and promoted pre-osteoblast formation with normal nuclear morphology. Nesprin-1 expression induced by Runx2 is essential for epigenetic regulation of the nuclear lamina. We propose CCD as a new type of laminopathy involving defective expression of Nesprin-1 regulated by Runx2.

  Study JGAS000663

• Identification of driver oncogenes in scirrhous-type gastric cancer cell lines

  Scirrhous type gastric cancer (SGC) is one of the most intractable cancer subtypes in human, and its therapeutic targets have been rarely identified to date. Exploration of somatic mutations in the SGC genome with the next generation sequencers has been hampered by low tumor contents by the markedly increased fibrous tissues. Thus, SGC cell lines may be useful resources to search for novel oncogenes in. Here we have conducted whole exome sequencing and RNA sequencing on two SGC cell lines, OCUM-8 and OCUM-9. Interestingly, most of the mutations thus identified have not been reported. In OCUM-8 cells, a novel CD44-IGF1R fusion gene is discovered, the protein product of which ligates the amino-terminus of CD44 to the transmembrane and the tyrosine-kinase domains of IGF1R. Further, both of CD44 and IGF1R are markedly amplified in the OCUM-8 genome and abundantly expressed. CD44-IGF1R has a transforming ability, and the suppression of its kinase activity leads to rapid cell death of OCUM-8. On the other hand, OCUM-9 seems to possess multiple oncogenic events in its genome. The MET gene is highly amplified, and the treatment of OCUM-9 with crizotinib, a MET inhibitor, results in cell death. Further, a novel BORCS5-ETV6 fusion gene is identified in the OCUM-9 genome. BORCS5-ETV6 possesses oncogenic activity, and suppression of its message partially inhibits cell growth. Prevalence of these novel fusion genes among SGC awaits further investigation, but we validate the significance of cell lines as appropriate reagents for detailed genomic analyses of SGC.

  Study JGAS000179

• Complex genotype-phenotype relationships shape the response to treatment of Down Syndrome Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

  Extensive genetic and epigenetic variegation has been demonstrated in many malignancies. Importantly, their interplay has the potential to contribute to disease progression and treatment resistance. To shed light on the complex relationships between these different sources of intra-tumour heterogeneity, we explored their relative contributions to the evolutionary dynamics of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in children with Down syndrome, which has particularly poor prognosis. We quantified the tumour propagating potential of genetically distinct sub-clones using serial transplantation assays and SNP-arrays. While most leukaemias were characterized by a single dominant subclone, others were highly heterogeneous. Importantly, we provide clear and direct evidence that genotypes and phenotypes with functional relevance to leukemic progression and treatment resistance can co-segregate within the disease. Hence, individual genetic lesions can be restricted to well-defined cell immunophenotypes, corresponding to different stages of the leukemic differentiation hierarchy and varied proliferation potentials. As a result of this difference in fitness, which can be accurately quantified via competitive transplantation assays, matching diagnostic, post-treatment, and relapse leukaemias can be dominated by different genotypes, including pre-leukemic clones persisting throughout the disease progression and treatment. Intriguingly, plasticity also appears to be a temporally defined property that can segregate with genotype. These results suggest that Down Syndrome ALL should be viewed as a complex matrix of cells exhibiting genetic and epigenetic heterogeneity that foster extensive clonal evolution and competition. Therapeutic intervention reshapes this ‘eco-system’ and may provide the right conditions for the preferential expansion of selected compartments and subsequently relapse.

  Study EGAS50000001287

• Sequencing data from triple-negative breast cancer tumors

  Autoimmunity and anti-cancer immunity lie on the same biological continuum1,2, but their link remains obscure. The paraneoplastic neurological syndrome anti-NMDA receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis (ANRE) is a paradigm for their connectivity3 given that intratumoral NMDAR expression correlates with the generation of anti-NMDAR antibodies4,5. Here, we verify ectopic expression of GluN1 and GluN2B NMDAR sub-units in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)6 and model this using orthotopic TNBC tumors with inducible expression of GluN1-GluN2B NMDARs. We show that NMDAR expression is sufficient to induce B cell recruitment and their affinity maturation, consistent with an integrated adaptive immune response. Reconstruction of extended intratumoral B cell phylogenies and cryo-EM structural analyses demonstrated that affinity-matured hypermutated and class-switched antibodies emerged from pre-existing germline-configuration lower-affinity anti-NMDAR antibodies. Distinct matured antibodies targeted specific epitopes and induced conformational rearrangements within the NMDAR amino-terminal domain, predictive of their functional effects, ranging from inhibition to potentiation. Passive transfer of an NMDAR-potentiating antibody caused autonomic dysregulation and lowered the seizure threshold in healthy female mice, recapitulating key diagnostic criteria of ANRE4,5. We further identify a correlation between intratumoral NMDAR expression and anti-NMDAR antibody titers in TNBC patients. Taken together, our data establish a direct connection between intratumoral NMDAR expression, antibody maturation, and the onset of autoimmunity. These findings suggest that germline-encoded anti-NMDAR antibodies contribute to immune surveillance but can also trigger autoimmune disease upon maturation, revealing a mechanistic tradeoff between cancer immunity and neurotoxicity.

  Study EGAS50000001598

• High-Resolution Spatial Transcriptomics Uncover Epidermal-Dermal Divergences in Merkel Cell Carcinoma: Spatial Context Reshapes the Gene Expression Landscape

  Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive malignancy with neuroendocrine differentiation marked by high plasticity, often manifesting as rapid therapy resistance. Although the cell-of-origin is presumed to be epithelial, epidermal localization of MCC is rarely observed, largely because in situ MCC is typically an incidental finding. Nevertheless, a subset of MCC tumors exhibits epidermotropism, wherein tumor cells are present in the epidermis. The behavior of cancer cells is profoundly influenced by the tumor microenvironment and interactions with neighboring cells. Notably, the normal counterparts of the cancer’s cell-of-origin have been shown to attenuate tumor aggressiveness. Thus, epidermotropic MCC presents a unique opportunity to explore the potential role of surrounding keratinocytes in modulating tumor cell behavior. While the epidermotropic tumor nests share histological resemblance with their dermal counterparts, their transcriptomic profiles remain unexplored. Here, we employed high-definition spatial and single cell transcriptomics to dissect the gene expression profiles of epidermotropic MCC cells, comparing them to MCC cells in the tumor core and those adjacent to blood vessels. Notably, epidermotropic MCC cells exhibit a transcriptomic signature reminiscent of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, characterized by upregulation of genes encoding keratins, S100A proteins, as well as calmodulin-like proteins 3 and 5. Mechanistically, this keratinocytic differentiation is associated with enhanced p63 activity, leading to the upregulation of PERP. Collectively, our study demonstrates that MCC cells can adopt a keratinocytic differentiation program in response to microenvironmental cues, underscoring the remarkable phenotypic plasticity of this malignancy and the importance of the tumor microenvironment for tumor characteristics.

  Study EGAS00001008157

• Microsatellite data show recent demographic expansions in sedentary but not in nomadic human populations in Africa and Eurasia.

  The transition from hunting and gathering to plant and animal domestication was one of the most important cultural and technological revolutions in human history. According to archeologists and paleoanthropologists, this transition triggered major demographic expansions. However, few genetic studies have found traces of Neolithic expansions in the current repartition of genetic polymorphism, pointing rather toward Paleolithic expansions. Here, we used microsatellite autosomal data to investigate the past demographic history of 87 African and Eurasian human populations with contrasted lifestyles (nomadic hunter-gatherers, semi-nomadic herders and sedentary farmers). Likely due to the combination of a higher mutation rate and the possibility to analyze several loci as independent replicates of the coalescent process, the analysis of microsatellite data allowed us to infer more recent expansions than previous genetic studies, potentially resulting from the Neolithic transition. Despite the variability in their location and environment, we found consistent expansions for all sedentary farmers, while we inferred constant population sizes for all hunter-gatherers and most herders, which could result from constraints linked to a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle and/or competition for land between herders and farmers. As an exception, we inferred expansions for Central Asian herders. This might be linked with the arid environment of this area, which may have been more favorable to nomadic herders than to sedentary farmers. Alternatively, current Central Asian herders may descent from populations who have first experienced a transition from hunter-gathering to sedentary agropastoralism, and then a second transition to nomadic herding.

  Study EGAS00001000652

• Sequencing data from triple-negative breast cancer tumors

  Autoimmunity and anti-cancer immunity lie on the same biological continuum1,2, but their link remains obscure. The paraneoplastic neurological syndrome anti-NMDA receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis (ANRE) is a paradigm for their connectivity3 given that intratumoral NMDAR expression correlates with the generation of anti-NMDAR antibodies4,5. Here, we verify ectopic expression of GluN1 and GluN2B NMDAR sub-units in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)6 and model this using orthotopic TNBC tumors with inducible expression of GluN1-GluN2B NMDARs. We show that NMDAR expression is sufficient to induce B cell recruitment and their affinity maturation, consistent with an integrated adaptive immune response. Reconstruction of extended intratumoral B cell phylogenies and cryo-EM structural analyses demonstrated that affinity-matured hypermutated and class-switched antibodies emerged from pre-existing germline-configuration lower-affinity anti-NMDAR antibodies. Distinct matured antibodies targeted specific epitopes and induced conformational rearrangements within the NMDAR amino-terminal domain, predictive of their functional effects, ranging from inhibition to potentiation. Passive transfer of an NMDAR-potentiating antibody caused autonomic dysregulation and lowered the seizure threshold in healthy female mice, recapitulating key diagnostic criteria of ANRE4,5. We further identify a correlation between intratumoral NMDAR expression and anti-NMDAR antibody titers in TNBC patients. Taken together, our data establish a direct connection between intratumoral NMDAR expression, antibody maturation, and the onset of autoimmunity. These findings suggest that germline-encoded anti-NMDAR antibodies contribute to immune surveillance but can also trigger autoimmune disease upon maturation, revealing a mechanistic tradeoff between cancer immunity and neurotoxicity.

  Study EGAS50000001585

• Aging and genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation in an African rainforest hunter-gathering population

  Aging is associated with widespread changes in genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation. Thousands of CpG sites whose tissue-specific methylation levels are strongly correlated with chronological age have been previously identified. However, the majority of these studies have focused primarily on cosmopolitan populations living in the developed world; it is not known if age-related patterns of DNA methylation at these loci are similar across a broad range of human genetic and ecological diversity. We investigated genome-wide methylation patterns using saliva derived DNA from a traditionally hunting and gathering African populations: the Baka of the western Central African rainforest, together with the ≠Khomani San of the South African Kalahari Desert. We identify hundreds of CpG sites whose methylation levels are significantly associated with age, thousands that are significant in a meta-analysis, and replicate trends previously reported in populations of non-African descent. We confirm that an age associated site in the gene ELOVL2 shows a remarkably congruent relationship with aging in humans, despite extensive genetic and environmental variation across populations. We also demonstrate that genotype state at methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs) can affect methylation trends at some known age-associated CpG sites. Our study explores the relationship between CpG methylation and chronological age in populations of African hunter-gatherers, who rely on different diets across diverse ecologies. While many age-related CpG sites replicate across populations, we show that considering common genetic variation at meQTLs further improves our ability to detect previously identified age associations.

  Study EGAS00001002226

• Exome Sequencing Of 75 Individuals From Multiply Affected Coeliac Families

  Coeliac disease is a highly heritable common autoimmune disease involving chronic small intestinal inflammation in response to dietary wheat. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region, and 40 newer regions identified by genome wide association studies (GWAS) and dense fine mapping, account for ~40% of the disease heritability. We hypothesized that in pedigrees with multiple individuals with coeliac disease rare [minor allele frequency (MAF) <0.5%] mutations of larger effect size (odds ratios of ~ 2 – 5) might exist. We sequenced the exomes of 75 coeliac individuals of European ancestry from 55 multiply affected families. We selected interesting variants and genes for further follow up using a combination of: an assessment of shared variants between related subjects, a model-free linkage test, and gene burden tests for multiple, potentially causal, variants. We next performed highly multiplexed amplicon resequencing of all RefSeq exons from 24 candidate genes selected on the basis of the exome sequencing data in 2,248 unrelated coeliac cases and 2,230 controls. 1,335 variants with a 99.9% genotyping call rate were observed in 4,478 samples, of which 939 were present in coding regions of 24 genes (Ti/Tv 2.99). 91.7% of coding variants were rare (MAF <0.5%) and 60% were novel. Gene burden tests performed on rare functional variants identified no significant associations (P<1x10-3) in the resequenced candidate genes. Our strategy of sequencing multiply affected families with deep follow up of candidate genes has not identified any new coeliac disease risk mutations.

  Study EGAS00001001093

• UK10K NEURO ASD SKUSE

  In the UK10K project we propose a series of complementary genetic approaches to find new low frequency/rare variants contributing to disease phenotypes. These will be based on obtaining the genome wide sequence of 4000 samples from the TwinsUK and ALSPAC cohorts (at 6x sequence coverage), and the exome sequence (protein coding regions and related conserved sequence) of 6000 samples selected for extreme phenotypes. Our studies will focus primarily on cardiovascular-related quantitative traits, obesity and related metabolic traits, neurodevelopmental disorders and a limited number of extreme clinical phenotypes that will provide proof-of-concept for future familial trait sequencing. We will analyse directly quantitative traits in the cohorts and the selected traits in the extreme samples, and also use imputation down to 0.1% allele frequency to extend the analyses to further sample sets with genome wide genotype data. In each case we will investigate indels and larger structural variants as well as SNPs, and use statistical methods that combine rare variants in a locus or pathway as well as single-variant approaches. This sample set of UK origin consists of clinically identified subjects with Autism Spectrum Disorders, mostly without intellectual disability (ie. Verbal IQs >70). The subjects represent children and adults with Autism, Asperger syndrome or Atypical Autism, identified according to standardized research criteria (ADI-algorithm, ADOS). A minority has identified comorbid neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. ADHD). Family histories are available, with measures of broader phenotype in first-degree relatives.For further information on this cohort please contact David Skuse (d.skuse@ucl.ac.uk).

  Study EGAS00001000114

• UK10K_NEURO_MUIR

  In the UK10K project we propose a series of complementary genetic approaches to find new low frequency/rare variants contributing to disease phenotypes. These will be based on obtaining the genome wide sequence of 4000 samples from the TwinsUK and ALSPAC cohorts (at 6x sequence coverage), and the exome sequence (protein coding regions and related conserved sequence) of 6000 samples selected for extreme phenotypes. Our studies will focus primarily on cardiovascular-related quantitative traits, obesity and related metabolic traits, neurodevelopmental disorders and a limited number of extreme clinical phenotypes that will provide proof-of-concept for future familial trait sequencing. We will analyse directly quantitative traits in the cohorts and the selected traits in the extreme samples, and also use imputation down to 0.1% allele frequency to extend the analyses to further sample sets with genome wide genotype data. In each case we will investigate indels and larger structural variants as well as SNPs, and use statistical methods that combine rare variants in a locus or pathway as well as single-variant approaches.The sample selection consists of subjects with schizophrenia (SZ), autism, or other psychoses all with mental retardation (learning disability). The samples were initially collected under the leadership of Walter J Muir (deceased), now with Prof. Blackwood, Dr McKechanie and Prof McIntosh as custodians. These subjects represent the intersection of severe forms of neurodevelopmental disorders, appear to have a higher rate of familiality of SZ than typical, and are likely to have more serious and penetrant forms of mutations.For further information on this cohort please contact Andrew McIntosh (andrew.mcintosh@ed.ac.uk).

  Study EGAS00001000122

• Structure and evolution of double minutes in diagnosis and relapse brain tumors

  Double minute chromosomes are extrachromosomal circular DNA fragments frequently found in brain tumors. To understand their evolution, we characterized the double minutes in paired diagnosis and relapse tumors from a pediatric high-grade glioma and four adult glioblastoma patients. We determined the full structures of the major double minutes using a novel approach combining multiple types of supporting genomic evidence. Among the double minutes identified in the pediatric tumor, only one carrying EGFR was maintained at high abundance in both samples, whereas two others were resent in only trace amounts at diagnosis but abundant at relapse, and the rest were found either in the relapse sample only or in the diagnosis sample only. For the EGFR-carrying double minutes, we found a secondary somatic deletion in all copies at relapse, after erlotinib treatment, but this was rare at diagnosis, suggesting potential resistance to the EGFR inhibitor. This mutation caused an in-frame RNA transcript to skip exon 16, a novel transcript absent in EST database and in about 700 brain tumors that we reviewed. We observed similar patterns involving longitudinal copy number shift of double minutes in another four pairs (diagnosis / relapse) of adult glioblastoma. Overall, in three of five paired tumor samples, we found that although the same oncogenes were amplified at diagnosis and relapse, they were amplified on different double minutes. Our results suggest that double minutes readily evolve, increasing tumor heterogeneity rapidly. Understanding patterns of double minute evolution can shed light on future therapeutic solutions to brain tumors carrying such variants.

  Study EGAS00001003212

• MYCN Amplification and ATRX Mutations are Incompatible in Neuroblastoma

  Age and stage of disease at diagnosis is associated with outcome in neuroblastoma. A previous study identified ATRX point mutations and in-frame deletions in older patients with stage 4 disease. To validate the frequency of ATRX mutations and assess the relation of mutations and known prognostic variables, we collaborated with the Children’s Oncology Group and sequenced the entire ATRX genomic locus in 475 neuroblastoma tumor samples to validate the frequency of ATRX mutations and assess the relation of mutations and known prognostic variables. Older age at diagnosis, stage 4 disease, and unfavorable histology were significantly associated with mutations in the ATRX gene; MYCN amplification was mutually exclusive from ATRX mutations. To directly test if ATRX mutations and MYCN amplification are incompatible in neuroblastoma, we mutated the ATRX gene in MYCN amplified neuroblastoma cell lines and ectopically expressed MYCN in ATRX mutant neuroblastoma cell lines. Both approaches showed that ATRX and MYCN amplification are incompatible in neuroblastoma in culture and in vivo. To gain a better understanding of the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms of this incompatibility, we performed a series of experiments including telomere analysis, epigenetic profiling, electron microscopic analysis and metabolic profiling. We discovered that induction of MYCN expression in ATRX mutant neuroblastomas cells leads to metabolic reprogramming, mitochondrial dysfunction, increased reactive oxygen species and replicative stress. We propose that this leads to synthetic lethality in ATRX mutant neuroblastomas because of the underlying replicative stress in those cells as a result of dysfunction of this essential histone chaperone.

  Study EGAS00001003257

• Sporadic and endemic Burkitt lymphoma have frequent FOXO1 mutations but distinct hotspots in the AKT recognition motif

  FOXO1 has an oncogenic role in adult germinal center derived lymphomas, in which mutations, predominately within the AKT recognition motif, cause nuclear retention of FOXO1 resulting in increased cell proliferation. To determine the prevalence and distribution of FOXO1 mutations in pediatric Burkitt lymphoma (BL), we sequenced a large number of sporadic and endemic BL patient samples. We report a high frequency of FOXO1 mutations in both sporadic and endemic BL at diagnosis, occurring in 23/78 (29%) and 48/89 (54%) samples respectively, as well as 8/16 (50%) cases at relapse. Mutations of T24 were the most common in sporadic BL but were rare in endemic cases, in which mutations of residue S22, also within the AKT recognition motif, were the most frequent. FOXO1 mutations were almost always present in the major tumor cell clone but were not associated with outcome. Analysis of other recurrent mutations reported in BL revealed that FOXO1 mutations were associated with mutations of DDX3X and ARID1A, but not MYC, TCF3/ID3 or members of the phosphatidylinositol 3’ OH kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway. We further show common nuclear retention of the FOXO1 protein, irrespective of mutation status, suggesting alternative unknown mechanisms for maintaining FOXO1 transcriptional activity in BL. CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of FOXO1 in an endemic cell line produced a significant decrease in cell proliferation, supporting an oncogenic role for FOXO1 in endemic BL. Thus, FOXO1 is frequently mutated in both sporadic and endemic BL and may offer a potential therapeutic target for pediatric BL patients worldwide.

  Study EGAS00001003719

• Colorectal cancer organoids expressing BRAF (fusion) genes

  Fusion genes may be oncogenic drivers and potential targets for personalized therapies in a variety of cancer types. The BRAF gene is frequently involved in oncogenic fusions, with fusion frequencies of 0.2-3% throughout different cancers. BRAF can be fused to a wide variety of genes, however, BRAF fusions rarely occur in the exact same gene configuration, making assessment of the fusion relevance and decision for drug treatment challenging. Here, we devised a colorectal cancer organoid-based platform to functionally characterize diverse BRAF fusions, containing various partner genes (AGAP3, DLG1 and TRIM24). We compared these BRAF fusions with respect to cellular behaviour, downstream signaling activation and response to targeted therapies. We found that 5’ partner choice of BRAF affects cellular localization and intracellular signaling capacities of the fusion genes. The DLG1-BRAF fusion gene showed distinct localization to the plasma membrane and exhibited increased levels of MAPK pathway activation under unperturbed conditions. Furthermore, the different BRAF fusions showed varying sensitivities to the targeted inhibition of ERK and BRAF, with the DLG1-BRAF fusion being the most sensitive. Additionally, RNA-sequencing identified distinct subsets of genes affected by the DLG1-BRAF fusion gene. Importantly, all fusion genes conveyed resistance to the clinically relevant EGFR/HER2/HER4-inhibitor afatinib, suggesting that BRAF fusions should be screened alongside other MAPK pathway alterations to identify mCRC patients amenable to cetuximab treatment. In summary, we developed a platform to efficiently assess molecular and cellular effects of fusion genes, and revealed that differential drug responses and distinct gene expression profiles can be induced by different BRAF fusions .

  Study EGAS00001003558

• MYO5B mutations in Pheochromocytoma/Paraganglioma promote cancer progression

  Identification of additional cancer-associated genes and secondary mutations driving the metastatic progression in pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) is important. We recently reported novel recurrent nonsynonymous mutations in the MYO5B gene in metastatic PPGL. Here, we explored the functional impact of these MYO5B mutations, and analyzed MYO5B expression in primary PPGL tumor cases in relation to mutation status.Immunohistochemistry and mRNA expression analysis in 30 primary PPGL tumors revealed an increased MYO5B expression in metastatic compared to non-metastatic tumor cases. In addition, subcellular localization of MYO5B protein was altered from cytoplasmatic to membranous in some metastatic tumors, and the strongest and most abnormal expression pattern was observed in a PGL case harboring a MYO5B:p.G1611S mutation. Mutation analysis of additional PPGL tumors revealed additional, and hence recurrent, mutations in the paralog MYO5A. Three missense mutations in MYO5B were functionally studied using site directed mutagenesis and stable transfection into human neuroblastoma cells (SK-N-AS) and embryonic kidney cells (HEK293 cell line). Functional analysis of the mutants verified a significant increased proliferation rate in all MYO5B mutated clones (p.L587P, p.G1611S, and p.R1641C). The two somatically derived mutations p.L587P and p.G1611S were also found to increase the migration rate, and all three mutants affected intracellular transport by increased transferrin uptake. Downstream expression analysis of MYO5B mutants demonstrated a transcriptional activation of genes involved in glucose metabolism, proliferation, homeostasis, and migration. Our study validates the functional role of novel MYO5B mutations in proliferation and migration, and suggest the MYO5-pathway to be involved the malignant progression of PPGL tumors.

  Study EGAS00001003991

• Integrated clinical, whole genome, and transcriptome analysis of multisampled lethal metastatic prostate cancer

  We report the first combined analysis of whole genome sequence, detailed clinical history, and transcriptome sequence of multiple prostate cancer metastases in a single patient (A21). Whole genome and transcriptome sequence was obtained from 9 anatomically separate metastases, and targeted DNA sequencing was performed in cancerous and noncancerous foci within the primary tumor specimen removed 5 years prior to death. Transcriptome analysis revealed increased expression of AR-regulated genes in liver metastases that harbored an AR p.L702H mutation, suggesting a dominant effect by the mutation despite being present in only 1 of an estimated 16 copies per cell. The metastases harbored several alterations to the PI3K/AKT pathway, including a clonal truncal mutation in PIK3CG and present in all metastatic sites studied. The list of truncal genomic alterations shared by all metastases included homozygous deletion of TP53, hemizygous deletion of RB1 and CHD1, and amplification of FGFR1. If the patient were treated today given this knowledge, use of second-generation androgen-directed therapies, cessation of glucocorticoid administration, and therapeutic inhibition of the PI3K/AKT pathway or FGFR1 receptor could provide personalized benefit. Three previously unreported truncal clonal missense mutations (ABCC4 p.R891L, ALDH9A1 p.W89R, and ASNA1 p.P75R) were expressed at the RNA level and assessed as druggable. The truncal status of mutations is critical for actionability, and can only be determined through analysis of multiple sites of metastasis. Our findings suggest that a large set of deeply analyzed cases could serve as powerful guide to more effective prostate cancer basic science and personalized cancer medicine clinical trials.

  Study EGAS00001001659

• Detection and characterization of lung cancer using cell-free DNA fragmentomes

  Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death world-wide, largely due to its late diagnosis. Non-invasive approaches for assessment of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) provide an opportunity for detection and intervention that may have broader accessibility than current imaging approaches. Using a machine learning model for detecting tumor-derived cfDNA through genome-wide analyses of cfDNA fragmentation, we examined a prospective study of 365 individuals at risk for lung cancer (Lung Cancer Diagnostic Study, LUCAS), including 129 individuals ultimately diagnosed with lung cancer and 236 individuals determined to not have lung cancer. We externally validated the cancer detection model using an independent cohort of 385 non-cancer individuals and 46 predominantly early stage lung cancer patients. Combining fragmentation features with clinical risk factors and CEA levels followed by CT imaging detected 94% of patients with cancer across stages and subtypes, including 91% of stage I/II and 96% of stage III/IV, at 80% specificity. Genome-wide fragmentation profiles across ~13,000 ASCL1 transcription factor binding sites could be used to distinguish individuals with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) from those with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with high accuracy (AUC=0.98). Among individuals with lung cancer, a higher cfDNA fragmentation score was associated with tumor size and invasion, and represented an independent prognostic indicator of survival. These studies provide a facile approach for non-invasive detection of lung cancer and clinical management of this disease.

  Study EGAS00001005340

• Novel optineurin frameshift insertion causing familial frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism without amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

  Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) is a common cause of Young Onset Dementia and has diverse clinical manifestations involving behaviour, executive function, language and motor function, including parkinsonism. Up to 50% of FTD patients report a positive family history, supporting a strong genetic basis, particularly in cases with both FTD and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FTD-ALS). Mutations in three genes are associated with the majority of familial FTD (fFTD) cases - microtubule associated protein tau gene (MAPT), progranulin gene (PGRN), and hexanucleotide repeat expansions in chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72), whilst mutations in other genes such as optineurin (OPTN) have rarely been reported. Mutations in OPTN have been reported mostly in familial and sporadic cases of ALS, or in rare cases of FTD-ALS, but not in association with pure or predominant FTD and/or parkinsonian phenotype. Here, we report for the first time, a family from the Philippines with 4 affected members harbouring the same OPTN frameshift insertion, presenting with FTD-related phenotypes, including one sibling with predominant parkinsonism resembling corticobasal syndrome. Notably, none of the affected members showed any evidence of motor neuron disease or ALS at the time of writing, both clinically and on electrophysiological testing, expanding the phenotypic spectrum of OPTN mutations. Close follow-up of mutation carriers for the development of new clinical features and wider investigation of additional family members with further genetic analyses will be conducted to investigate the possibility of other genetic modifiers in this family which could explain phenotypic heterogeneity.

  Study EGAS00001005220

• Exome sequencing

  Human telomere biology disorders (TBD), a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by telomere attrition and premature aging phenotypes, are caused by inherited loss-of-function mutations in telomere-associated genes. Here, we identify three germline heterozygous missense variants in RPA1 gene in four unrelated probands presenting with short telomeres and varying clinical features of TBD including bone marrow failure, myelodysplastic syndrome, T- and B-cell lymphopenia, pulmonary fibrosis, and skin manifestations. All variants cluster to DNA binding domain A of RPA1 protein. RPA1 is an essential single-strand DNA-binding protein essential for DNA replication and repair. RPA1 has been implicated in telomere maintenance but the mechanism remains elusive. Thus far, no genetic disorder had been linked to RPA1. Using FRET assays, we showed that RPA1E240K and RPA1V227A exhibit increased binding to single-strand and telomeric DNA, implying a gain in DNA-binding function while RPA1T270A has binding properties similar to wild type. To study the mutational effect, RPA1E240K, with the highest binding capacity, was knocked-in iPSCs using CRISPR/Cas9, which showed severe telomere shortening and impaired hematopoietic differentiation. Furthermore, in the RPA1E240K patient, stable blood counts over two decades due coincided with clonal rescue hematopoiesis with an RNA-degrading truncating RPA1 mutation and a uniparental isodisomy 17p with loss of RPA1E240K allele. Using single cell DNA sequencing, the two somatic genetic rescue events were proven to be independently acquired in hematopoietic stem cells. In summary, we describe the first human disease caused by germline RPA1 variants in individuals with TBD.

  Study EGAS00001005761

• Epigenome-wide methylation analysis of colorectal carcinoma, adenoma and normal tissue reveals novel biomarkers addressing unmet clinical needs

  Studies about CRC biomarker discovery have focused on methylation patterns in normal and colorectal tumor tissue, leading to a lack of knowledge of methylation in adenomas. Therefore, we performed the first epigenome-wide study to compare the epigenomes of all three tissue types combined, and to identify discriminatory biomarkers. Public Illumina MethylEPIC® data was collected from 552 normal, 118 carcinoma and 116 adenoma samples. Pairwise analyses were performed for discovery of differentially methylated probes (DMPs). We identified 693 813, 620 643 and 558 897 DMPs when comparing normal vs carcinoma, normal vs adenoma and adenoma vs carcinoma respectively. To double evidence (DE) these DMPs, analysis of Illumina 450K data from public datasets was performed. Through this analysis, 13 DE DMPs with │Δβ│≥0.3 were identified for adenoma vs carcinoma. A binary logistic regression model was generated to evaluate the discriminatory potential of these DE DMPS. The model was validated in an in-house experimental methylation dataset of 13 adenoma and 9 carcinoma samples. Our classifier reached a cross-validated AUC of 0.996 and 0.855 in the discovery and validation datasets respectively. A sensitivity and specificity of 96% and 95% were reached, with an overall accuracy of 96%. Our analysis show that methylation biomarkers have the potential to discriminate between normal, precursor and carcinoma tissues of the colorectum. More importantly, we highlight the power of the methylome, showing that DMPs can be used as biomarkers in the clinic to identify colorectal adenoma and carcinoma. 

  Study EGAS00001007017

• RNA isoform repertoire of neuropsychiatric risk genes in human brain

  Neuropsychiatric disorders are highly complex conditions and the risk of developing a disorder has been tied to hundreds of genomic variants that alter the expression and/or products (isoforms) made by risk genes. However, how these genes contribute to disease risk and onset through altered expression and RNA splicing is not well understood. Here we show our current understanding of gene isoforms is far from complete and reveal the precise splicing profiles of neuropsychiatric disorder risk genes. Combining our new bioinformatic pipeline IsoLamp with nanopore long-read amplicon sequencing, we deeply profiled the RNA isoform repertoire of 31 high-confidence neuropsychiatric disorder risk genes in human brain. We show most risk genes are more complex than previously reported, identifying 443 novel isoforms and 28 novel exons, including isoforms which alter protein domains, and genes such as ATG13 and GATAD2A where most expression was from previously undiscovered isoforms. The greatest isoform diversity was present in the schizophrenia risk gene ITIH4. Mass spectrometry of brain protein isolates confirmed translation of a novel exon skipping event in ITIH4, suggesting a new regulatory mechanism for this gene in brain. Our results emphasize the widespread presence of previously undetected RNA and protein isoforms in brain and provide an effective approach to address this knowledge gap. Uncovering the isoform repertoire of neuropsychiatric risk genes will underpin future analyses of the functional impact these isoforms have on neuropsychiatric disorders, enabling the translation of genomic findings into a pathophysiological understanding of disease.

  Study EGAS00001007744

• Center for Common Disease Genomics [CCDG] - Cardiovascular: The Genetics of Atrial Fibrillation

  This study is a part of NHGRI's Center for Common Disease Genomics, which is a collaborative large-scale genome sequencing effort to comprehensively identify rare risk and protective variants contributing to multiple common disease phenotypes. Current estimates anticipate that the CCDG program will sequence approximately 140K whole genomes and 225K whole exomes during the life of the project. The Cardiovascular Disease working group of the CCDG considered five diseases: early-onset coronary artery disease (EOCAD), stroke, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure and type 2 diabetes. Atrial fibrillation will affect between 6-12 million individuals in the US by 2050. AF also is associated with increased risks of stroke, dementia, heart failure, death, and high health care costs. Many risk factors for AF have been identified, including advancing age, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and CVD risk factors. However, there is little knowledge how to prevent AF. Furthermore, therapies for AF are only partially effective, and are themselves associated with substantial morbidity. Previously, heritable forms of AF have been considered rare; yet in the last decade, it has been established that AF, and in particular early-onset forms of AF, are heritable. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide a powerful tool to identify common variants underlying disease risk. The AFGen Consortium currently consists of investigators from more than 25 studies with >20,000 individuals with AF and >100,000 without AF. In the latest analyses, 14 loci have been identified for AF1 . Broadly, the loci implicate genes related to cardiopulmonary development, cardiac-expressed ion channels, and cell signaling molecules.Source: https://ccdg.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/CCDG_CVD_EOAF_FINAL_w_link.pdfFor this study, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard generated genetic data for UWO Genetic Investigation of Supraventricular Tachycardias.Patients confirmed to possess a supraventricular tachycardia and/or an accessory pathway at the time of invasive electrophysiology study at the London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada were eligible for enrollment. Potential supraventricular tachycardias included atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT), atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia (AVRT), atrial tachycardia, junctional tachycardia, atriofascicular tachycardia, nodofascicular tachycardia, and nodoventricular tachycardia. Patients that did not have inducible supraventricular tachycardia, but had an accessory pathway that conducted antegrade, retrograde, or both, were also eligible for enrollment. All patients additionally underwent, at minimum, a clinical history, physical examination, 12-lead ECG, and echocardiogram. Study participants provided informed written consent under a protocol approved by the research ethics board of Western University.Raw sequencing data, metadata, vcf and phenotype data at individual level are available at https://anvilproject.org/data For questions about availability contact help@lists.anvilproject.org.

  Study phs002811

• Genes for Non-Syndromic Congenital Heart Disease

  Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are the most common serious birth defect and a leading cause of infant mortality. Affected individuals who survive infancy require substantial medical care and experience lifelong morbidity and early mortality. Despite their prevalence and impact upon public health, the etiology of CHDs is poorly understood. Our long-term goal is to better define the genetic basis of CHDs and using this information, develop preventive measures and provide precise medical management based on genotype. As CHDs are a heterogeneous group of conditions, we have focused our studies on cases with conotruncal heart defects (CTDs) that comprise at least 36% of all CHDs and are a prominent feature of the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS). We have conducted both SNP- and CNV-based genome-wide association studies as part of our previous and current P01 (HD070454). Our current analyses of genes and gene-sets provide new insights regarding the contribution of common and rare inherited genetic variants to CTDs. Specifically, based on the results from our studies as well as recently published findings, we hypothesize that: (1) CTDs are influenced by the full range of genetic variability (rare to common; de novo and inherited) in relevant gene-sets; (2) the number of disease-related variants within these gene-sets varies directly with CTD severity; and (3) gene-sets associated with CTDs in nonsyndromic individuals are also associated with CTDs in individuals with the 22q11DS. To augment our existing cohorts and thus substantially improve the statistical power of our proposed analyses, application was made to complete array genotyping of a set of patients with CTDs and in particular, those with mild disease represented by isolated aortic arch anomalies. The new cases with CTD and some with an isolated aortic arch anomaly were ascertained at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) while some of the cases with isolated aortic arch anomalies were ascertained by the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium (PCGC). A small group of cases with left-sided obstructive lesions from CHOP were included to combine with our existing datasets to serve as a comparison to those with CTD. The additional genotype data will augment the statistical power of the proposed common variant analyses. We anticipate that this work will reduce the gaps in our understanding of CTDs by identifying an explicit set of genes associated with CTD-risk by way of common variants. This work will also help define the genetic architecture for the full clinical spectrum of these common birth defects.

  Study phs002059

• Assessment of RNA-Seq Sample Preparation Methodology

  The goal of this study was two-fold, to determine if common purification techniques have any effect on downstream differential expression analysis and to evaluate combinations of alignment and differential expression software for reliability. To this end, blood was collected from three individuals and pooled during and after extraction. After pooling and mixing was completed, samples were divided into three aliquots for testing. The first aliquot was a control and not purified or concentrated. It was diluted to produce samples of varying concentrations for testing. The second aliquot was diluted to 20 ng/μL and used to test six different variations on the AMPure XP bead purification procedure. The last aliquot was also diluted to varying concentrations of 60, 30, and 9.6 ng/μL and purified using MinElute columns. Samples were submitted for total RNA-Seq library preparation and sequencing. Library preparation was performed using the TruSeq Stranded Total RNA with Ribo-Zero Globin kit (20020612, Illumina Inc.), and 2x150 bp PE sequencing was done on an Illumina NovaSeq 6000 with the S4 reagent kit. Comparisons were made between methods (AMPure vs. unpurified, AMPure vs. MinElute, MinElute vs. unpurified) to assess the effects of purification method on downstream differential expression. Comparisons were also made within methods using the varying concentrations tested for unpurified samples and for MinElute purified samples to assess the effects of concentration on differential expression. Variations of the AMPure procedure were also compared to assess the effectiveness of the variations tested in comparison to the unmodified procedure. A subset of samples was selected for use with alignment and differential expression package comparison. Unpurified high concentration samples eluted in RNAse-free water were compared to unpurified high concentration samples eluted in BR5, a buffer from the PAXgene blood miRNA kit, with the expectation that there should be no or very few differentially expressed genes. Unpurified high concentration samples eluted in RNAse-free water were also compared to unpurified low concentration samples also eluted in RNAse-free water, with possibly a small number of differentially expressed genes anticipated. A third dataset of simulated RNA-seq data was created with a known rate of differential expression. These files were aligned using Bowtie2, HISAT2, kallisto, RSEM, Rsubread, Salmon, and STAR. Results were then analyzed for differential expression using ALDEx2, baySeq, DEGseq, DESeq2, edgeR, limma, NOISeq, PoissonSeq, and SAMseq. Differential expression results of all three comparisons were evaluated to determine which combinations provided the most reliable results for both real and simulated data.

  Study phs003001

• NSIGHT BabySeq Project

  The Genomic Sequencing for Childhood Risk and Newborn Illness (BabySeq Project) is a research study exploring the use of genomic sequencing in newborns. The National Institutes of Health is funding this study. Investigators enrolled 240 healthy infants and their parents from the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) Well Newborn Nursery and 240 sick infants and their parents at Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) or the BWH Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). A small blood sample was taken from each infant and genome sequencing may have been performed. Whole-exome (WES) was performed at the Broad Institute. Six weeks later, the results were returned and explained. Over 12 months, the investigators studied the experiences of parents and pediatricians of infants who receive sequencing to help understand how best to use genomics in pediatric care. Parents were surveyed at four points over the 12 months after enrollment: baseline, immediately post-disclosure (approximately 6 weeks after enrollment), 3 months post-disclosure, and at 10 months post-disclosure. Primary outcome measures included: (1) downstream health care costs attributable to BabySeq Project disclosure measured as days of inpatient care; (2) Parents' distress using validated scales and a novel item assessing blame; (3) parent-child relationship using validated scales; (4) Parents' relationship using validated and novel measures of marital satisfaction; (5-9) downstream health care utilization attributable to BabySeq project disclosure measured as the number of health care provider visits, per-patient counts for number of medications at 10 months, number of emergency room visits, number of outpatient lab tests, and per-patient means for healthcare costs in U.S. dollars. A secondary outcome was whether there was a change in perceived utility toward genomic sequencing. Findings of BabySeq include: (1) interest in newborn genomic testing is high among parents of healthy children and the majority of couples had similar levels of interest; (2) parents reported several motivations to receive and reasons to decline adult-onset only results from newborn sequencing; (3) 88% of newborns had at least one recessive carrier variant that could be relevant to their parents' future reproductive planning; (4) 5% of babies had an atypical pharmacogenomic variant related to how they might process medications used in childhood; (5) parent surveys using validated measures showed no evidence that newborn genomic sequencing caused increased psychological distress, even if the baby had a disease risk identified; and (6) 11% of newborn babies in the study had unanticipated monogenic disease risks.

  Study phs002093

• The Genomics and Randomized Trials Network (GARNET) Vitamin Intervention Stroke Prevention (VISP) Trial

  The VISP trial (PI Jim Toole, M.D., Wake Forest University School of Medicine) was a multi-center, double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial that enrolled patients aged 35 or older with homocysteine (Hcy) levels above the 25th percentile at screening and a non-disabling cerebral infarction (NDCI) within 120 days of randomization (Toole, 2002, PMID: 12417369). The trial was designed to determine if daily intake of a multivitamin tablet with high dose folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 reduced recurrent cerebral infarction (primary endpoint), and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) or mortality (secondary endpoints). Subjects were randomly assigned to receive daily doses of the high-dose formulation (n=1,827), containing 25mg pyridoxine (B6), 0.4mg cobalamin (B12), and 2.5mg folic acid; or the low-dose formulation (n=1,853), containing 200mcg pyridoxine, 6mcg cobalamin and 20mcg folic acid. Enrollment in VISP began in August 1997, and was completed in December 2001, with 3,680 participants enrolled. Within the trial, 2,164 participants from 46 clinic sites provided DNA and agreed for it to be shared for use in a genetic subset study of VISP. This study is part of Genomics and Randomized Trials Network (GARNET), funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). The overarching goal is to identify novel genetic factors that contribute to stroke through large-scale genome-wide association studies of treatment response in randomized clinical trials. Genotyping was performed at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR). Data cleaning and harmonization were performed at the GARNET Coordinating Center at the University of Washington. The data of the VISP trial have been released to dbGaP users in several segments: Version 1 (phs000343.v1.p1), consisted of n=4 phenotype datasets, and all raw, cleaned and imputed genotype data. Version 2 (phs000343.v2.p1) included n=14 additional phenotype datasets (plus pedigree, consent, and sample-mapping data), and increased the available data to a total of n=970 phenotype variables. Version 3 (phs000343.v3.p1) included all n=36 phenotype datasets (plus pedigree, consent, and sample-mapping data), and increased the available data to a total of n=1918 phenotype variables.Version 4 (phs000343.v4.p1), the current release, includes all previous phenotypic datasets, includes one new phenotypic dataset for the untargeted metabolomics data of 50 individuals, includes DNA methylation profiles for n=180 individuals, and sequencing data for n=179 individuals.

  Study phs000343

• Genome-Wide Association of Native and Post Aspirin Platelet Function Phenotypes

  The goal of this study was to identify genetic variants in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) that are associated with previously obtained platelet function phenotypes measured in each individual under baseline conditions and following 2 weeks of low dose aspirin (ASA). During this study we performed a high density 1 million-SNP genome scan on subjects from GeneSTAR (representing 800 2-generational families with a family history of premature coronary artery disease, 60% white and 40% African American, N=3232). We identified genomic loci associated with quantitative platelet phenotypes prioritized for their biological interest, determined associations between genomic loci and baseline platelet phenotypes (primary phenotypes are platelet aggregation in platelet rich plasma induced by collagen, adenosine diphosphate (ADP), arachidonic acid (AA), and epinephrine (Epi), determined associations between genomic loci and post-ASA platelet phenotypes, ie, measures of ASA "resistance" (primary phenotypes are as above, plus urinary levels of the prostaglandin metabolite, 11-dehydro-thromboxane B2 ), and compared peaks of association between genomic loci and three common baseline platelet phenotypes (collagen-, epinephrine-, and ADP-induced aggregation in platelet rich plasma) with associations found for these same phenotypes in the Framingham Heart Study. We also determined whether any significant genotype-phenotype associations in the 1 million SNP genome scan could be localized to any specific genes or potential genes of interest using publicly available databases and further examined whether candidate genes previously associated with a specific platelet phenotype are located in a genomic region of interest as determined from the SNP genome scan. We conducted replications of our findings, and are presently involved in larger scale meta-analysis of findings for pre-aspirin and post-aspirin associations. The study population is constituted of full siblings (SIBS) (ages 35-78 years) identified from The Johns Hopkins Sibling Study, now called GeneSTAR, the spouses of the SIBS, and their adult offspring (>21 years of age). They include 3200 individuals from approximately 300 African American and 500 white extended families. "Spouse" refers to the other parent of any SIB offspring, independent of marital status. Sibship sizes among families range from 1 to 16 (excluding index cases). On average, each SIB has 2 potentially eligible offspring. A family for this study is defined by all of the full sibships and the total numbers of offspring that come from all SIBS, rather than just the nuclear family.

  Study phs000375

• ADAGESIII: Contribution of genotype to glaucoma phenotype in African Americans

  Glaucoma results in vision loss due to damage of the optic nerve that is irreversible if undetected or untreated. The most common form of glaucoma is primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). While glaucoma affects all races, persons of African descent are disproportionately affected; studies show African-Americans (AAs) are about four to five times more likely than Caucasian Americans to develop the disease. Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in Americans of African descent, and the second leading cause in all Americans. The lack of understanding about the etiology of POAG impedes our ability to identify and treat it early in its development. Evidence of genetic contribution in the pathogenesis of POAG is well established. Since POAG tends to run in families, it is critical to identify the genetic basis of the disease in order to develop effective therapies for early intervention. While genome wide association studies (GWAS) for glaucoma have been completed for Caucasian populations, evidence from other studies suggests that a GWAS of glaucoma specific genes to the African-American population will yield unique and important findings for both this population and for glaucoma in general. A better understanding of the relationship among the stage of disease, the rate of change, ancestry, and other important risk factors being tracked in the ongoing African Descent and Glaucoma Study (ADAGES) will allow us to evaluate the relationship between genetics, visual loss and structural damage in this high-risk cohort. The scientific plan for this new study focuses on glaucoma in ∼2058 African-Americans by detailed phenotyping of new subjects, acquisition of samples from both new and established previously phenotyped study subjects for a repository, establishment of a data coordinating center, and genome wide association studies. The recruitment, enrollment, and phenotyping of both established and new subjects occurs at five clinical centers, University of California (UCSD), New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (Mt Sinai) and Columbia University Medical Center, a private practice in the Atlanta area, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Robert Cizik Eye Clinic in Houston, TX. UCSD is also the location for the Data Coordinating Center and the Repository with Robert N. Weinreb as Principal Investigator. LA BioMed at Harbor-UCLA did the genotyping with a GWAS panel of ∼1 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using the Illumina MEGA array under the direction of Jerome Rotter, Ida Chen, and Kent Taylor.

  Study phs001673

• Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics - Underserved Populations (RADx-UP): CO-CREATE-Ex: Community-engaged Optimization of COVID-19 Rapid Evaluation And TEsting Experiences

  Cases of COVID-19 infection in San Diego have persistently remained high in the county's central and southern communities near the US/Mexico border, home to primarily Latino residents who have been one of the ethnic minority communities most impacted by COVID-19. To address this, our Phase I RADx-UP project partnered with San Ysidro Health (SYH), a federally qualified health center, and the Global Action Research Center (Global ARC), a social change organization, to co-create and demonstrate the impact of a PCR-based COVID-19 testing program in San Ysidro. To date, we have administered approximately 15,000 PCR tests for >10,000 community members (92% Latino) and received requests from SYH to scale-out the testing program to additional primary care clinic sites. Responsive to RFA-OD-22-006, we will continue working with our community (Global ARC) and clinical (SYH) partners to refine, specify, implement, and evaluate an implementation strategy bundle that optimizes COVID-19 testing, expanding beyond current PCR testing to focus on FDA-authorized COVID-19 rapid antigen testing. Use of self-administered rapid antigen tests will allow participants to build capacity to self-test and use health information technology to access additional clinic services. Based on initial implementation mapping with the project's established Community and Scientific Advisory Board, three implementation strategies were prioritized to accelerate sustained uptake of rapid COVID-19 testing. These three strategies include: (1) current, walk-up onsite free testing; (2) promotores-led COVID-19 test counseling and preventive care reminders; (3) vending machines that dispense FDA-authorized self-testing kits. Our primary objectives are to: 1) refine and operationalize our multi-component implementation strategy bundle and a related set of measures of success for rapid FDA- authorized COVID-19 testing and 2) implement and evaluate impact of our innovative, multilevel, and multicomponent implementation strategy bundle to optimize COVID-19 rapid testing among underserved, Latino communities using a roll-out implementation optimization study design across four clinics over 18 months. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the urgent and essential need to engage invested community parties continuously and meaningfully in public health research to reduce health disparities. This proposal is well-positioned to provide a set of strategies and measures of success that can be used in settings serving underserved communities while maintaining flexibility to adjust to the changing COVID-19 landscape.

  Study phs003686

• MP2PRT: Evaluation of an Inflammation Polygenic Risk Score (iPRS) to Predict Cancer Related Cognitive Impairment and Fatigue in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy for Non-Metastatic Breast Cancer in URCC0701 and URCC10055

  This study is a secondary analysis of cancer related cognitive impairment (CRCI) and cancer related fatigue (CRF) among participants in URCC0701 and URCC10055 from the University of Rochester NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Research Base. CRCI and CRF are common, troublesome, and dose-limiting toxicities reported by patients undergoing breast cancer chemotherapy that have an etiologic basis linked to low-grade systemic inflammation. Chronic, low-grade systemic inflammation is, in part, genetically determined with common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) capturing variation across individuals. This study aimed to 1) determine whether an inflammation polygenic risk score (iPRS) is associated with CRCI or CRF, 2) determine whether the relationship between the iPRS and CRCI or CRF is modified by exercise at the time of cancer treatment, 3) identify SNPs associated with serum cytokines measured at the time of cancer treatment, and 4) identify novel CRCI- and CRF-associated risk SNPs via genome-wide association analyses. We found that there was a significant inverse correlation between the iPRS and change in fatigue score from pre-chemotherapy to post-chemotherapy while there was no statistically significant association between the iPRS and cognitive impairment score. The inverse relationship between the iPRS and fatigue may be explained in part by the finding that the iPRS was also significantly associated with greater pre-chemotherapy fatigue, suggesting that women with a genetic predisposition to low-grade systemic inflammation (i.e., high iPRS) have more fatigue at the time of breast cancer diagnosis and, therefore, are less likely to worsen over the course of treatment. In contrast, women with a low iPRS had significantly less fatigue pre-chemotherapy and a significant worsening of fatigue from pre- to post-chemotherapy. The relationship between the iPRS and fatigue remained after adjustment for patient and cancer treatment covariates and was most pronounced in women who reported regularly exercising for at least 6 months prior to starting their cancer treatment. Exploratory genome-wide analysis identified a novel risk locus on chromosome chr6q27, tagged by rs9365961, associated with CRCI. This locus is upstream of TBXT, which encodes an embryonic nuclear transcription factor previously associated with susceptibility to neural tube defects. The genome-wide SNP data, patient-reported CRCI and CRF outcome measures, and covariate data used in this analysis are available through dbGaP.

  Study phs003688

• Pediatric Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma RNA-Seq

  Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common malignancy amongst adolescent and young adult women. Clinical and genomic features of PTC in children differ from those in adults. Historically, a substantial proportion (~50%) of pediatric PTC (PPTC) lack any of the common driver mutations typical of adult PTC. Thus, molecular diagnostics developed for adults may not be valid in children. We applied novel bioinformatic pipelines to RNASeq analysis of pediatric thyroid tumors to identify known and novel fusion oncogenes as drivers of tumorigenesis and to define gene expression patterns among tumors. Analysis of 38 samples resulted in identification of 16 previously reported oncogenic fusions and three novel candidate fusions. In conducting these analyses, we reduced the proportion of cancers with unknown drivers from approximately 50% to 6%. Gene expression analysis identified three distinct categories of tumors. These studies represent the first unbiased genomic approach to childhood PTC. Novel bioinformatic pipeline. GEC Identified 3 distinct classes. DICER1, PTEN segregated with benign tumors. >90% of PPTC carry identifiable ongognic driver variants, however, the landscape differs from that in adults and existing tools for tumor genotyping in adults may not be applicable to pediatric tumors. BACKGROUND: Papillary thyroid carcinoma demonstrates clinically distinct behaviour in pediatric patients when compared to adults, with increased regional and distal metastases, more frequent recurrence, yet overall highly favourable prognosis. Recent tumor genotyping has demonstrated that in pediatric tumors, ***-*** do not carry the most common genomic variants found in adult PTC, leaving a substantial proportion of driver-unknown or “dark matter” tumors. METHODS: We established a cohort of 52 pediatric PTC and performed quantitative-PCR genotyping followed in a subset by whole exome and whole transcriptome (RNASeq) sequencing using a novel, robust bioinformatic pipeline to identify oncogenic fusion transcripts. Gene expression analysis was used to derive distinct clusters. RESULTS: In 52 pediatric PTC, genotyping identified BRAFV600E(21%), NRASQ61R(2%), RET/PTC1 (21%), RET/PTC3 (17%) or PAX8-PPAR in 33 (63%) of tumors. Among the remaining 19 tumors, oncogenic variants were identified in /19 (%). The variants included SNVs in DICER1, ETV6-NTRK3, PTEN and 9 additional oncogenic fusions including two previously-undescribed fusion transcripts, *** and ***. CONCLUSIONS: The genomic landscape of PTC differs between children and adults. In children, there is a substantial fraction of tumors that are unexplained by variants typical of adult PTC. This discrepancy is explained largely by uncommon oncogenic fusions which can be identified by whole-transcriptome analysis.

  Study EGAS00001005182

• A Genome-Wide Association Study of Peripheral Arterial Disease

  The Electronic Medical Record Phenotypes and Community-engaged Genomic Association Study aims to identify genetic variants mediating susceptibility to peripheral arterial disease (PAD). The study leverages a biorepository of blood samples of 1688 PAD cases and 1649 controls, and the electronic medical record (EMR) to annotate the biorepository. PAD cases were identified from the vascular laboratory database as having an ankle brachial index (ABI) <0.9 at rest or after exercise or having non-compressible vessels. Controls were without prior history of atherosclerotic vascular disease and when tested, no evidence of ischemia on a stress test. Phenotypes and environmental exposures including age, ethnicity, demographic and anthropometric data are derived from the Mayo Electronic Medical Record (EMR). Comorbidities were determined using algorithms for diabetes and hypertension based on ICD-9 codes and medication use. Relevant laboratory data, including lipid levels, fasting blood sugar and serum creatinine at index date or within a 1-year window of the index date were extracted. Medication classes at index date were identified using Mayo's Natural Language Processing-based system with RxNorm codification and NDF-RT terminologies mapping. Smoking status was confirmed by natural language processing of clinical notes. Genotyping of ~600,000 SNPs across the genome is being conducted at the Broad Institute using the Illumina 660W platform. Statistical analyses will be conducted to identify genetic variants associated with susceptibility to PAD.

  Study phs000203

• NIH RECOVER: A Multi-Site Pathology Study of Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

  The RECOVER tissue pathology study is a cross-sectional study designed to define and characterize the epidemiology, natural history, clinical spectrum, and underlying mechanisms of post-acute effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a diverse population representative of the general COVID-19 population in the US. The autopsy study will characterize the pathology of PASC in decedents who die more than 60 days after initial onset or after hospital discharge, whether in-hospital or out-of-hospital at time of death, and who meet the working definition of PASC as defined by the recent World Health Organization publication given in Section 5.4. The autopsy study will also explore the pathology of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection in a smaller subset of decedents who died between15-60 days from symptom onset. This protocol defines the common set of clinical data elements, autopsy procedures for tissue collection, core measures, pathology protocols, shared pathology tissues, data elements, and methodology. Each investigator site is expected to perform autopsies on the decedents to address the pathophysiology of the potential long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on human health. The Consortium analysis plan aims to address research questions by incorporating: 1) tissue obtained from autopsies performed at each Phase II participant's site; and 2) tissue available from other pathology investigators/autopsy sites within the Consortium.

  Study phs003768

• A prognostic human brain network for diffuse midline glioma

  Diffuse midline glioma (DMG) are near-universally lethal tumours of the paediatric central nervous system. In animal models, DMG form brain-wide, integrated networks through neuron-to-glioma synapses and glioma-to-glioma gap junctional coupling. This extensive connectivity robustly promotes the growth and invasion of DMG and other glial malignancies through paracrine mechanisms and direct neuron-to-glioma synapses. The organisation and clinical implications of these connections in the living human brain, however, remain to be elucidated. Here, we develop tumour network mapping to compute the brain-wide connectivity profile of DMG: defining a conserved brain network across pontine and thalamic DMG associated with patient short-term survival (DMG network). Tumour functional connectivity with the DMG network was independently predictive of patient overall survival across two external validation cohorts. Tumour growth mapped to DMG network-specific trajectories and peak, in-network neurometabolic changes across development spatiotemporally aligned with the peak age incidence of DMG. Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing confirmed diverse synaptic gene enrichment in high-connectivity DMG. Strikingly, incidental surgical resection of high-connectivity thalamic DMG tissue conferred a significant survival advantage. Collectively, these data define a conserved and prognostically important brain network in children with DMG, consistent with the hypothesis that DMG exploit otherwise healthy brain circuits to promote tumour growth.

  Study EGAS50000001752

• A genomic approach towards an understanding of clonal evolution and disease progression in multiple myeloma

  Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a largely incurable haematological malignancy defined by the clonal proliferation of malignant plasma cells within the bone marrow. Clonal heterogeneity has recently been established as a feature in MM, however, the subclonal evolution associated with disease progression has not been described. We used whole exome sequencing to analyse 10 paired patient samples, providing new insights into the progression from Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS) and Smouldering MM (SMM), to symptomatic MM. We confirm that clonal heterogeneity is a common feature at diagnosis and that the driving events involved in disease progression are more complex than previously reported. While we observe some previously identified known “drivers” of MM, we find that the driving events involved in progression are complex and not limited to the known SNVs or CNVs. The RAS/MAPK pathway was found to be the most frequently deregulated pathway, with recurrent mutations in KRAS and NRAS observed in patients at both MGUS/SMM and MM stages. We reveal that MM evolution is mainly characterised by the phenomenon of clonal stability, where the subclonal plasma cell populations identified at MM progression are already present in the asymptomatic MGUS/SMM stages. These subclonal populations could be amenable to therapeutic intervention to arrest transformation to MM.

  Study EGAS00001002850

• PAX5 biallelic genomic alterations define a novel subgroup of B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia

  Chromosomal rearrangements and specific aneuploidy patterns are initiating events and define subgroups in B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL). Here we analyzed 250 BCP-ALL cases and identified a novel subgroup (‘PAX5-plus’, n=19) by distinct DNA methylation and gene expression profiles. All patients in this subgroup harbored mutations in the B-lineage transcription factor PAX5, with p.P80R as hotspot. Mutations either affected two independent codons, consistent with compound heterozygosity, or suffered LOH predominantly through chromosome 9p aberrations. These biallelic events resulted in disruption of PAX5 transcriptional programs regulating B cell differentiation and tumor suppressor functions. Homozygous CDKN2A/B deletions and RAS activating hotspot mutations were highly enriched as cooperating events in the genomic profile of PAX5-plus ALL. Together this defined a specific pattern of triple alterations, exclusive to the novel subgroup. PAX5-plus ALL was observed in pediatric and adult patients. Although restricted by the limited sample size, a tendency for more favorable clinical outcome was observed with 10 of 12 adult PAX5-plus patients achieving long-term survival. PAX5-plus represents the first BCP-ALL subgroup defined by sequence alterations in contrast to gross chromosomal events and exemplifies how deregulated differentiation (PAX5), impaired cell cycle control (CDKN2A/B) together with sustained proliferative signaling (RAS) cooperatively drives leukemogenesis.

  Study EGAS00001003209

• Single cell transcriptomics of hESC-derived midbrain dopaminergic neurons generated by a new human development-based protocol

  Recent advances in stem cell technologies provide new opportunities for regenerative medicine and Parkinson’s disease modelling. However, the precise composition and quality of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived preparations at the single cell level, compared to endogenous brain standards, remains to be determined. In addition, multiple developmental pathways important for midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neuron development remain to be implemented in hESCs. Here we use mouse developmental knowledge and human single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data to generate a new development-based protocol to differentiate hESCs into mDA neurons. We found that Laminin 511, dual WNT activation with CHIR99021 and WNT5A, together with FGF8b, improved different aspects of midbrain patterning. Moreover, mDA neurogenesis and differentiation were enhanced by activation of liver X receptors and inhibition of fibroblast growth factor signaling. Analysis of hESC-derived midbrain cultures by scRNA-seq revealed multiple hESC-derived clusters, which resembled those in the endogenous human ventral midbrain. Moreover, high quality mDA neurons were detected and found to progressively acquire functionality in vitro. Thus, we hereby provide a hESC differentiation protocol that recapitulates several aspects of endogenous mDA neuron development, and a strategy to determine cell composition and quality of hESC-derived preparations that can be useful for disease modeling and cell therapy.

  Study EGAS00001006313

• Polyclonal selection of immune checkpoint mutations in thyroid autoimmunity - ExomeNanoSeq

  Our immune system contains multiple tolerance checkpoints to prevent the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes. How some lymphocytes escape these constraints to cause autoimmune disease remains poorly understood. A long-standing hypothesis in autoimmunity posits that somatic mutations in immune regulatory genes may enable self-reactive lymphocytes to bypass tolerance checkpoints. However, testing this hypothesis has proved challenging due to technical limitations in detecting somatic mutations in polyclonal cell populations. Here, we use deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq, a highly accurate single-molecule DNA sequencing protocol, to comprehensively search for driver mutations in autoimmune thyroid disease. This revealed a remarkably high number of B cell clones convergently acquiring loss-of-function somatic mutations in key immune checkpoint genes TNFRSF14 (also known as HVEM) and CD274 (encoding PD-L1), as well as less frequent driver mutations in a diversity of other immune genes. In highly inflamed biopsies, we detected tens to hundreds of independent immune-checkpoint mutant clones. Laser capture microdissection, methylation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus DNA sequencing localised these mutations to non-naive B cells and revealed frequent co-occurrence of drivers in single cells. We found widespread TNFRSF14 biallelic loss in mutant B cells, and several clones with as many as 4-6 driver mutations. Whilst each clone accounts for a small proportion of cells (typically <1%), the myriad mutant clones in each donor collectively amounted to a substantial fraction of B cells harbouring one or more driver mutations. Our results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations in autoimmune lymphocytes may allow them to escape tolerance constraints through a polyclonal cascade of somatic evolution. These findings provide new insights into the molecular basis of autoimmune disease and suggest novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues.

  Dataset EGAD00001016058

• Polyclonal selection of immune checkpoint mutations in thyroid autoimmunity - TargetedNanoSeq

  Our immune system contains multiple tolerance checkpoints to prevent the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes. How some lymphocytes escape these constraints to cause autoimmune disease remains poorly understood. A long-standing hypothesis in autoimmunity posits that somatic mutations in immune regulatory genes may enable self-reactive lymphocytes to bypass tolerance checkpoints. However, testing this hypothesis has proved challenging due to technical limitations in detecting somatic mutations in polyclonal cell populations. Here, we use deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq, a highly accurate single-molecule DNA sequencing protocol, to comprehensively search for driver mutations in autoimmune thyroid disease. This revealed a remarkably high number of B cell clones convergently acquiring loss-of-function somatic mutations in key immune checkpoint genes TNFRSF14 (also known as HVEM) and CD274 (encoding PD-L1), as well as less frequent driver mutations in a diversity of other immune genes. In highly inflamed biopsies, we detected tens to hundreds of independent immune-checkpoint mutant clones. Laser capture microdissection, methylation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus DNA sequencing localised these mutations to non-naive B cells and revealed frequent co-occurrence of drivers in single cells. We found widespread TNFRSF14 biallelic loss in mutant B cells, and several clones with as many as 4-6 driver mutations. Whilst each clone accounts for a small proportion of cells (typically <1%), the myriad mutant clones in each donor collectively amounted to a substantial fraction of B cells harbouring one or more driver mutations. Our results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations in autoimmune lymphocytes may allow them to escape tolerance constraints through a polyclonal cascade of somatic evolution. These findings provide new insights into the molecular basis of autoimmune disease and suggest novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues.

  Dataset EGAD00001016059

• Polyclonal selection of immune checkpoint mutations in thyroid autoimmunity - TargetedEMSeq

  Our immune system contains multiple tolerance checkpoints to prevent the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes. How some lymphocytes escape these constraints to cause autoimmune disease remains poorly understood. A long-standing hypothesis in autoimmunity posits that somatic mutations in immune regulatory genes may enable self-reactive lymphocytes to bypass tolerance checkpoints. However, testing this hypothesis has proved challenging due to technical limitations in detecting somatic mutations in polyclonal cell populations. Here, we use deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq, a highly accurate single-molecule DNA sequencing protocol, to comprehensively search for driver mutations in autoimmune thyroid disease. This revealed a remarkably high number of B cell clones convergently acquiring loss-of-function somatic mutations in key immune checkpoint genes TNFRSF14 (also known as HVEM) and CD274 (encoding PD-L1), as well as less frequent driver mutations in a diversity of other immune genes. In highly inflamed biopsies, we detected tens to hundreds of independent immune-checkpoint mutant clones. Laser capture microdissection, methylation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus DNA sequencing localised these mutations to non-naive B cells and revealed frequent co-occurrence of drivers in single cells. We found widespread TNFRSF14 biallelic loss in mutant B cells, and several clones with as many as 4-6 driver mutations. Whilst each clone accounts for a small proportion of cells (typically <1%), the myriad mutant clones in each donor collectively amounted to a substantial fraction of B cells harbouring one or more driver mutations. Our results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations in autoimmune lymphocytes may allow them to escape tolerance constraints through a polyclonal cascade of somatic evolution. These findings provide new insights into the molecular basis of autoimmune disease and suggest novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues.

  Dataset EGAD00001016060

• Polyclonal selection of immune checkpoint mutations in thyroid autoimmunity - PTA_WGS

  Our immune system contains multiple tolerance checkpoints to prevent the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes. How some lymphocytes escape these constraints to cause autoimmune disease remains poorly understood. A long-standing hypothesis in autoimmunity posits that somatic mutations in immune regulatory genes may enable self-reactive lymphocytes to bypass tolerance checkpoints. However, testing this hypothesis has proved challenging due to technical limitations in detecting somatic mutations in polyclonal cell populations. Here, we use deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq, a highly accurate single-molecule DNA sequencing protocol, to comprehensively search for driver mutations in autoimmune thyroid disease. This revealed a remarkably high number of B cell clones convergently acquiring loss-of-function somatic mutations in key immune checkpoint genes TNFRSF14 (also known as HVEM) and CD274 (encoding PD-L1), as well as less frequent driver mutations in a diversity of other immune genes. In highly inflamed biopsies, we detected tens to hundreds of independent immune-checkpoint mutant clones. Laser capture microdissection, methylation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus DNA sequencing localised these mutations to non-naive B cells and revealed frequent co-occurrence of drivers in single cells. We found widespread TNFRSF14 biallelic loss in mutant B cells, and several clones with as many as 4-6 driver mutations. Whilst each clone accounts for a small proportion of cells (typically <1%), the myriad mutant clones in each donor collectively amounted to a substantial fraction of B cells harbouring one or more driver mutations. Our results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations in autoimmune lymphocytes may allow them to escape tolerance constraints through a polyclonal cascade of somatic evolution. These findings provide new insights into the molecular basis of autoimmune disease and suggest novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues.

  Dataset EGAD00001016061

• Polyclonal selection of immune checkpoint mutations in thyroid autoimmunity - PTA_DNAHyb

  Our immune system contains multiple tolerance checkpoints to prevent the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes. How some lymphocytes escape these constraints to cause autoimmune disease remains poorly understood. A long-standing hypothesis in autoimmunity posits that somatic mutations in immune regulatory genes may enable self-reactive lymphocytes to bypass tolerance checkpoints. However, testing this hypothesis has proved challenging due to technical limitations in detecting somatic mutations in polyclonal cell populations. Here, we use deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq, a highly accurate single-molecule DNA sequencing protocol, to comprehensively search for driver mutations in autoimmune thyroid disease. This revealed a remarkably high number of B cell clones convergently acquiring loss-of-function somatic mutations in key immune checkpoint genes TNFRSF14 (also known as HVEM) and CD274 (encoding PD-L1), as well as less frequent driver mutations in a diversity of other immune genes. In highly inflamed biopsies, we detected tens to hundreds of independent immune-checkpoint mutant clones. Laser capture microdissection, methylation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus DNA sequencing localised these mutations to non-naive B cells and revealed frequent co-occurrence of drivers in single cells. We found widespread TNFRSF14 biallelic loss in mutant B cells, and several clones with as many as 4-6 driver mutations. Whilst each clone accounts for a small proportion of cells (typically <1%), the myriad mutant clones in each donor collectively amounted to a substantial fraction of B cells harbouring one or more driver mutations. Our results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations in autoimmune lymphocytes may allow them to escape tolerance constraints through a polyclonal cascade of somatic evolution. These findings provide new insights into the molecular basis of autoimmune disease and suggest novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues.

  Dataset EGAD00001016062

• Polyclonal selection of immune checkpoint mutations in thyroid autoimmunity - PTA_RNA

  Our immune system contains multiple tolerance checkpoints to prevent the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes. How some lymphocytes escape these constraints to cause autoimmune disease remains poorly understood. A long-standing hypothesis in autoimmunity posits that somatic mutations in immune regulatory genes may enable self-reactive lymphocytes to bypass tolerance checkpoints. However, testing this hypothesis has proved challenging due to technical limitations in detecting somatic mutations in polyclonal cell populations. Here, we use deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq, a highly accurate single-molecule DNA sequencing protocol, to comprehensively search for driver mutations in autoimmune thyroid disease. This revealed a remarkably high number of B cell clones convergently acquiring loss-of-function somatic mutations in key immune checkpoint genes TNFRSF14 (also known as HVEM) and CD274 (encoding PD-L1), as well as less frequent driver mutations in a diversity of other immune genes. In highly inflamed biopsies, we detected tens to hundreds of independent immune-checkpoint mutant clones. Laser capture microdissection, methylation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus DNA sequencing localised these mutations to non-naive B cells and revealed frequent co-occurrence of drivers in single cells. We found widespread TNFRSF14 biallelic loss in mutant B cells, and several clones with as many as 4-6 driver mutations. Whilst each clone accounts for a small proportion of cells (typically <1%), the myriad mutant clones in each donor collectively amounted to a substantial fraction of B cells harbouring one or more driver mutations. Our results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations in autoimmune lymphocytes may allow them to escape tolerance constraints through a polyclonal cascade of somatic evolution. These findings provide new insights into the molecular basis of autoimmune disease and suggest novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues.

  Dataset EGAD00001016063

• Polyclonal selection of immune checkpoint mutations in thyroid autoimmunity - LCMB_WGS

  Our immune system contains multiple tolerance checkpoints to prevent the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes. How some lymphocytes escape these constraints to cause autoimmune disease remains poorly understood. A long-standing hypothesis in autoimmunity posits that somatic mutations in immune regulatory genes may enable self-reactive lymphocytes to bypass tolerance checkpoints. However, testing this hypothesis has proved challenging due to technical limitations in detecting somatic mutations in polyclonal cell populations. Here, we use deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq, a highly accurate single-molecule DNA sequencing protocol, to comprehensively search for driver mutations in autoimmune thyroid disease. This revealed a remarkably high number of B cell clones convergently acquiring loss-of-function somatic mutations in key immune checkpoint genes TNFRSF14 (also known as HVEM) and CD274 (encoding PD-L1), as well as less frequent driver mutations in a diversity of other immune genes. In highly inflamed biopsies, we detected tens to hundreds of independent immune-checkpoint mutant clones. Laser capture microdissection, methylation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus DNA sequencing localised these mutations to non-naive B cells and revealed frequent co-occurrence of drivers in single cells. We found widespread TNFRSF14 biallelic loss in mutant B cells, and several clones with as many as 4-6 driver mutations. Whilst each clone accounts for a small proportion of cells (typically <1%), the myriad mutant clones in each donor collectively amounted to a substantial fraction of B cells harbouring one or more driver mutations. Our results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations in autoimmune lymphocytes may allow them to escape tolerance constraints through a polyclonal cascade of somatic evolution. These findings provide new insights into the molecular basis of autoimmune disease and suggest novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues.

  Dataset EGAD00001016064

• Polyclonal selection of immune checkpoint mutations in thyroid autoimmunity - LCMB_WES

  Our immune system contains multiple tolerance checkpoints to prevent the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes. How some lymphocytes escape these constraints to cause autoimmune disease remains poorly understood. A long-standing hypothesis in autoimmunity posits that somatic mutations in immune regulatory genes may enable self-reactive lymphocytes to bypass tolerance checkpoints. However, testing this hypothesis has proved challenging due to technical limitations in detecting somatic mutations in polyclonal cell populations. Here, we use deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq, a highly accurate single-molecule DNA sequencing protocol, to comprehensively search for driver mutations in autoimmune thyroid disease. This revealed a remarkably high number of B cell clones convergently acquiring loss-of-function somatic mutations in key immune checkpoint genes TNFRSF14 (also known as HVEM) and CD274 (encoding PD-L1), as well as less frequent driver mutations in a diversity of other immune genes. In highly inflamed biopsies, we detected tens to hundreds of independent immune-checkpoint mutant clones. Laser capture microdissection, methylation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus DNA sequencing localised these mutations to non-naive B cells and revealed frequent co-occurrence of drivers in single cells. We found widespread TNFRSF14 biallelic loss in mutant B cells, and several clones with as many as 4-6 driver mutations. Whilst each clone accounts for a small proportion of cells (typically <1%), the myriad mutant clones in each donor collectively amounted to a substantial fraction of B cells harbouring one or more driver mutations. Our results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations in autoimmune lymphocytes may allow them to escape tolerance constraints through a polyclonal cascade of somatic evolution. These findings provide new insights into the molecular basis of autoimmune disease and suggest novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues.

  Dataset EGAD00001016065

• Long-term organoid culture of a small intestinal neuroendocrine tumor

  Dac EGAC00001003157