Rapid, Low-Cost Detection of Zika Virus Using Programmable Biomolecular Components

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.04.059

A diagnostic tool for Zika virus using RNA sensors on a paper-based platform

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Mother's Milk

The safe use of medicines during breastfeeding is not an easy topic to study, but new parents deserve better information on the risks and benefits.

Nature

533, 145 (12 May 2016) doi:10.1038/533145a
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Diverse human extracellular RNAs are widely detected in human plasma

Nature Communications 7, Article number: 11106 doi:10.1038/ncomms11106

Jane Freedman et al.

There is growing appreciation for the importance of non-protein-coding genes in development and disease. Although much is known about microRNAs, limitations in bioinformatic analyses of RNA sequencing have precluded broad assessment of other forms of small-RNAs in humans. By analysing sequencing data from plasma-derived RNA from 40 individuals, here we identified over a thousand human extracellular RNAs including microRNAs, piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA), and small nucleolar RNAs. Using a targeted quantitative PCR with reverse transcription approach in an additional 2,763 individuals, we characterized almost 500 of the most abundant extracellular transcripts including microRNAs, piRNAs and small nucleolar RNAs. The presence in plasma of many non-microRNA small-RNAs was confirmed in an independent cohort. We present comprehensive data to demonstrate the broad and consistent detection of diverse classes of circulating non-cellular small-RNAs from a large population.

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Translating RNA sequencing into clinical diagnostics: opportunities and challenges

The maturation of the RNA-seq technique is the next-generation microarray and its open platform technology enables scientists to discover new transcript variants. 

Nature Reviews Genetics

 

17,

 

257–271

 

(2016)

 

doi:10.1038/nrg.2016.10

Published online

 

21 March 2016

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Cell Press-Podcast for Zika Virus

We learn how the Zika virus affects fetal development, with Guo-li Ming, Hongjun Song, and Hengli Tang, Cell Stem Cell (00:00), how fungi may be used to create batteries, with Geoffrey Gadd, Current Biology (5:45), how organs can be mimicked with chip technology, with Donald Ingber, Cell (11:40), and a personal story about travel and the Zika threat, with Simanta Buck (18:05). Plus much more!

A podcast on Zika Virus <-- click="" font="" here="">

Exploring the quantum speed limit with computer games

 ‘Gamification’—the application of game elements in a non-game context—is an effective tool with which to enable citizen scientists to provide solutions to research problems.

Read more at Nature.com

http://rdcu.be/hmrx

Long Noncoding RNAs in Cancer Pathways

A new article by Adam Schmidt and Howard Chang about lncRNAs:

Genome-wide cancer mutation analyses are revealing an extensive landscape of functional mutations within the noncoding genome, with profound effects on the expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). While the exquisite regulation of lncRNA transcription can provide signals of malignant transformation, we now understand that lncRNAs drive many important cancer phenotypes through their interactions with other cellular macromolecules including DNA, protein, and RNA. Recent advancements in surveying lncRNA molecular mechanisms are now providing the tools to functionally annotate these cancer-associated transcripts, making these molecules attractive targets for therapeutic intervention in the fight against cancer.

See the full text here