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20 NOV 2024 · The most comprehensive map of the developing human thymus sheds light on how immune responses are built and maintained at early life, with implications for understanding and treating immunodeficiency, autoimmunity, and cancer.
By creating the first spatial atlas of the developing human thymus, a vital organ that trains immune cells to protect against infections and cancer, scientists have discovered that the foundation for lifelong immunity is established earlier than previously thought.
Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators at Ghent University, Belgium, the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and others, uncovered key differences in the development of immune cells. This understanding could help scientists engineer immune cells outside the body to fight cancer, counter age-related immune decline, or prevent transplant rejection risks.
The study, published today (20 November) in Nature, is part of the international Human Cell Atlas initiative to map every cell type in the human body. Insights gained from studying how thymus samples change before and after birth could help future researchers generate an artificial thymus, the first step in being able to engineer therapeutic immune cells for older adults or people with compromised immune systems.
20 NOV 2024 · Full view of how bones and joints form in the first trimester uncovers cells and pathways that could help diagnose and treat skeletal conditions in the future.
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The first ‘blueprint’ of human skeletal development reveals how the skeleton forms, shedding light on the process of arthritis, and highlighting cells involved in conditions that affect skull and bone growth.
Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and collaborators have used cutting-edge genomic techniques to identify all the cells and pathways involved in the early stages of skeletal development. Part of the wider Human Cell Atlas project, this resource could be used to investigate whether current or future therapeutic drugs could disrupt skeletal growth if used during pregnancy.
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The study, published today (20 November) in Nature, shows a clear picture of how cartilage acts as a scaffold for bone development across the skeleton, apart from the top of the skull. The team mapped all the cells critical for skull formation and investigated how genetic mutations may cause soft spots in the skull of newborns to fuse too early, restricting the growth of the developing brain. In the future, these cells could be used as possible diagnostic and therapeutic targets for identifying and treating congenital conditions.
20 NOV 2024 · By combining 25 datasets, researchers have created the largest cohesive cell atlas of the human gut and uncovered a new way that stomach cells may play a role in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
The most comprehensive cell map of the human gut to date has been created by combining spatial and single-cell data from 1.6 million cells.Â
Mapping the cells of the gut can provide us with further insights into what happens in conditions such as bowel cancer and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Using this atlas, researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and collaborators uncovered a new role of a specific gut cell, highlighting its contributions to a cycle of inflammation in some individuals, possibly causing pain and distress.
The study, published today (20 November 2024) in Nature, details how the team harmonised over 25 single-cell datasets of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract to create the world’s largest freely-available resource of the human gut to date. This includes samples from those with health conditions as well as those without.Â
20 NOV 2024 · Large-scale genetic analysis uncovers new insight into how common DNA differences play a role in the development of rare brain conditions.
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The combination of common DNA differences can help explain why some people have a rare neurodevelopmental brain condition without a specific, single genetic mutation causing it. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and collaborators looked at data from thousands of children with rare neurodevelopmental conditions and their parents to investigate how common DNA differences contribute to these conditions.
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The study, published today (20th of November) in the journal Nature, extended a 2018 study by the same group showing that while their overall role is small, common genetic differences can help to explain why some people have a neurodevelopmental condition. Specifically, these common DNA differences overlap with those that are more likely to be found in people affected by later-onset conditions, such as depression and schizophrenia.
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In addition, this new study found that common genetic differences, when present in the parents, may affect the chance of their child developing a neurodevelopmental condition, even if the child does not inherit those genetic differences directly. However, more research is needed to fully understand this.
12 NOV 2024 · Dr https://www.sanger.ac.uk/person/adams-david/, Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, is a pioneer in cancer biology and uncovering skin cancer genetics. We explore his 20-year career at Sanger and the global impact of his research.
Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK, and while treatments have progressed in recent years, it is still the deadliest form of skin cancer. Dave Adams leads a team at the Sanger Institute that study a range of cancer types, with a focus on melanoma. His work has created a foundational understanding of cancer genetics and the results hold promise for new treatments. Dave has recently been promoted to Interim Head of the https://www.sanger.ac.uk/programme/cancer-ageing-and-somatic-mutation/ research programme at the Sanger Institute.
8 NOV 2024 · This month we are celebrating a new milestone of sequencing 50 Petabases of DNA. Large-scale sequencing projects have contributed to this achievement, providing us with unprecedented insights into human health and disease.
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Every learning process has a beginning. A moment where you are unsure of whether you will achieve your goal and a moment of doubt. In music, most new learners start with scales — a series of notes that form the foundation of music and allow composers to build new melodies and harmonies.
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At the Wellcome Sanger Institute, our beginning was in 1993 with the goal to sequence the human genome. A feat that was deemed impossible by both scientists and non-scientists around the world. Flash forward to 2024 and the impossible has happened — no not Oasis getting back together — but the human genome has already been sequenced and the Institute has now reached an exciting new milestone of sequencing 50 Petabases (Pb) of DNA.
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50 Pb is fifty thousand trillion bases of DNA, which is the equivalent of sequencing over half a million gold-standard human genomes. Whilst this may seem like just a fancy number, we can learn a great deal from these sequences of bases. They can allow us to form the foundation of our understanding and build new possibilities for human health and disease. By continuing to scale up our projects, we can gain deeper insights and set ourselves new ‘impossible’ bars. It can always seem daunting at the beginning — but it is something we here at Sanger know how to do best.
4 NOV 2024 · Sanger International Fellow, Dr Claire Chewapreecha, has been awarded this year’s Nature Scientific Achievement Prize 2024. The recognition highlights Claire’s work in the fight against melioidosis, a neglected tropical disease with a high fatality rate in Thailand.Â
Claire Chewapreecha is a https://www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk/team/claire-chewapreecha where she leads the Melioidosis Genomic Group in Bangkok and is a lecturer at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University. She also holds an International Fellow appointment at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Nature’s Inspiring Women in Science awards celebrate and support the achievements of women in science, and all those who work to encourage girls and young women to engage with STEM subjects and stay in STEM careers around the world.
31 OCT 2024 · Arnav Lal is interested in merging clinical practice with infectious disease research. He has recently completed his year-long Master’s in Biological Science through the Churchill Scholarship, provided by the University of Cambridge. For his Master’s he conducted research at the Wellcome Sanger Institute on antimicrobial resistance and used genomics to study how bacteria pass mobile genetic elements around. We caught up with him to talk about his experiences before he moved on to his next step, beginning his studies at Harvard medical school.
30 OCT 2024 · For the first time, scientists have tracked what happens to stem cells decades after a transplant, lifting the lid on the procedure that has been a medical mystery for over 50 years.
Insights could pave the way for new strategies in donor selection and transplant success, potentially leading to safer, more effective transplants.Â
Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators at the University of Zurich were able to map the behaviour of stem cells in recipients’ bodies up to three decades post-transplant, providing the first-ever glimpse into the long-term dynamics of these cells.
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The study, published today (30 October) in the journal Nature and part-funded by Cancer Research UK, reveals that transplants from older donors, which are often less successful, have ten times fewer vital stem cells surviving the transplant process. Some of the surviving cells also lose the ability to produce the range of blood cells essential for a robust immune system.
26 OCT 2024 · To get into the spirit of the spooky season, read about some curiously creepy creatures whose DNA has been sequenced by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
*Trigger warning: insects, spiders, and worms, incoming.
Come delve into the DNA of some of the most fascinating and creepy creatures on the planet — think bats, spiders, and worms with toxic bites. Studying the detailed DNA of these living nightmares can help scientists uncover new secrets about their biology.
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| Author | Wellcome Sanger Institute |
| Organization | Wellcome Sanger Institute |
| Categories | Life Sciences , Medicine , Nature |
| Website | www.sanger.ac.uk |
| communications@sanger.ac.uk |
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