Genome researchers at Bielefeld University decode the hamster genome

Scientists present their findings in 'Nature Biotechnology'

2013-08-21

(Press-News.org) This news release is available in German.

Genome researchers from Bielefeld University's Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) headed by Professor Dr. Alfred Pühler have succeeded in sequencing the genome of the Chinese hamster. The Chinese hamster supplies the cell cultures used by the pharmaceutical industry to produce biopharmaceutical products such as antibodies used in medicine. This costly project was only possible thanks to a cooperation between Bielefeld University and its international project partners. The researchers have now published their results in the internationally renowned scientific journal 'Nature Biotechnology'.

To carry out this project, the CeBiTec research team cooperated with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (where the project was headed by Professor Dr. Nicole Borth), the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib), and two pharmaceutical companies: Novartis (in Switzerland) and Pfizer (in the USA).

Professor Dr. Thomas Noll, Scientific Director of CeBiTec, is confident that the data they have obtained will be of great interest to science and industry. 'In future, the decoded hamster genome will greatly advance the use of cell lines to produce pharmaceuticals', says Noll, who runs the Cell Culture Technology research group at the Faculty of Technology and participated in the research project.

The genome of the Chinese hamster is composed of eleven pairs of chromosomes. Decoding such a large genome calls for the generation of large datasets that then have to be processed with bioinformatics. To facilitate the resulting data analysis, the researchers in Bielefeld and their colleagues in this project applied a completely new procedure that sorts the single chromosomes of the genome. The sequencing of the hamster chromosomes was performed by Dr. Karina Brinkrolf at CeBiTec. More than 1.4 billion short DNA sequences were generated with the help of modern instruments for next-generation sequencing. 'The major challenge in this project was subsequently piecing these short DNA sequences together to form single total sequences of chromosomes', explains the head of the project Professor Alfred Pühler. This work can only be done with powerful computers. 'We had to complete the new CeBiTec computer cluster and apply new software before we could determine the genome sequence', says the bioinformatics expert Dr. Alexander Goesmann who also worked on the project. 'By decoding the hamster genome sequence', notes Goesmann, 'bioinformatics at Bielefeld University has broken new ground.' With approximately 2.3 billion bases, the magnitude of the genome sequence of the Chinese hamster is comparable to that of the human genome.

The head of the project Alfred Pühler views this research as a milestone in the work at CeBiTec: 'The decoding of the hamster genome successfully concludes a major CeBiTec project. The hamster sequence is available in the public domain and can be used for research throughout the world.' The project greatly enhances the status of Bielefeld as a basis for current research on the cell cultures of the Chinese hamster, says Pühler. A further project has already been agreed with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and the Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology. 'This places Bielefeld University in a good position to carry on contributing to this highly competitive field of research.'

INFORMATION:

Original publication:

Karina Brinkrolf, Oliver Rupp, Holger Laux, Florian Kollin, Wolfgang Ernst, Burkhard Linke, Rudolf Kofler, Sandrine Romand, Friedemann Hesse, Wolfgang E. Budach, Sybille Galosy, Dethardt Müller, Thomas Noll, Johannes Wienberg, Thomas Jostock, Mark Leonard, Johannes Grillari, Andreas Tauch, Alexander Goesmann, Bernhard Helk, John E. Mott, Alfred Pühler, and Nicole Borth: Chinese hamster genome sequenced from sorted chromosomes, Nature Biotechnology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2645, published online on 8 August 2013

For further information in the Internet, go to: http://www.cebitec.uni-bielefeld.de

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Elevated levels of copper in amyloid plaques associated with neurodegeneration in mouse models of AD

2013-08-21

Amsterdam, NL, 21 August 2013 – Metals such as iron, copper, and zinc are important for many biological processes. In recent years, studies have shown that these nutritionally-essential metals are elevated in human Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains and some animal models of AD. Scientists are now exploring whether these metals are causing the neurodegeneration seen in AD or are indicative of other ongoing pathologic processes. In a new study, investigators used synchrotron x-ray fluorescence microscopy to image metal ions in the brain, focusing on the amyloid plaques that ...

NASA sees Typhoon Trami passing Taiwan for China landfall

2013-08-21

NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Typhoon Trami's center just north of Taiwan as it headed for landfall in eastern China. On Aug. 21 at 02:45 UTC/10:45 p.m. EDT on Aug. 20, NASA's Terra satellite passed over the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard it, captured a visible image of Trami. The MODIS image showed a tight circulation center with bands of thunderstorms have wrapped more tightly into the center of circulation from the north to east to south of the center. The band of ...

New research suggests cutting calories may improve response to cancer treatment

2013-08-21

(WASHINGTON, August 21, 2013) – New research suggests that restricting calories for a defined period of time may improve the success of cancer treatment, offering valuable new data on how caloric intake may play a role in programmed cancer cell death and efficacy of targeted cancer therapies. Study results were published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). While previous studies suggest a connection between caloric intake and the development of cancer, scientific evidence about the effect of caloric intake on the efficacy of ...

'Virtual heart' precision-guides defibrillator placement in children with heart disease

2013-08-21

The small size and abnormal anatomy of children born with heart defects often force doctors to place lifesaving defibrillators entirely outside the heart, rather than partly inside — a less-than-ideal solution to dangerous heart rhythms that involves a degree of guesstimating and can compromise therapy. Now, by marrying simple MRI images with sophisticated computer analysis, a team of Johns Hopkins researchers says it may be possible to take the guesswork out of the process by using a virtual 3-D heart model that analyzes a child's unique anatomy and pinpoints the best ...

Brain circuit can tune anxiety

2013-08-21

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Anxiety disorders, which include posttraumatic stress disorder, social phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder, affect 40 million American adults in a given year. Currently available treatments, such as antianxiety drugs, are not always effective and have unwanted side effects. To develop better treatments, a more specific understanding of the brain circuits that produce anxiety is necessary, says Kay Tye, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences and member of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. "The targets that current ...

MERS virus discovered in bat near site of outbreak in Saudi Arabia

2013-08-21

A 100% genetic match for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has been discovered in an insect-eating bat in close proximity to the first known case of the disease in Saudi Arabia. The discovery points to the likely animal origin for the disease, although researchers say that an intermediary animal is likely also involved. Led by team of investigators from the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, EcoHealth Alliance, and the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the study is the first to search ...

The bitter and the sweet: Fruit flies reveal a new interaction between the 2

2013-08-21

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Fruit flies have a lot to teach us about the complexity of food. Like these tiny little creatures, most animals are attracted to sugar but are deterred from eating it when bitter compounds are added. A new study conducted by UC Santa Barbara's Craig Montell, Duggan Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, explains a breakthrough in understanding how sensory input impacts fruit flies' decisions about sweet taste. The findings were published today in the journal Neuron. It is generally well ...

Infection during newborn's first week of life associated with bacterial infection in the mother

2013-08-21

Infection during a newborn's first 7 days of life is associated with bacterial infection or colonization in the mother Early-onset neonatal infection, defined as infection in the first 7 days of life, is associated with maternal infection and colonization, a systematic review and meta-analysis by Grace Chan (Johns Hopkins School of Public Health) and colleagues found in this week's issue of PLOS Medicine. Newborns of mothers with laboratory-confirmed infection had an odds ratio of 6.6 (95%CI 3.9-11.2) for laboratory-confirmed infection themselves compared with newborns ...

Guideline development for non-specialist mental health services in Nigeria

2013-08-21

Mental health conditions contribute to approximately 14% of the total global burden of disease but there is a substantial treatment gap in both developed and developing countries. Treatment of mental health conditions in low resource settings such as Nigeria, one of Africa's most populous countries, is particularly challenging where that are few mental health professionals. For example Nigeria has a population of ~150 million but only 0.06 psychiatrists and 0.02 psychologists per 100,000 people. In order to address the treatment gap the World Health Organization (WHO) ...

Human foot not as unique as originally thought

2013-08-21

Research at the University of Liverpool has shown that the mechanisms of the human foot are not as unique as originally thought and have much more in common with the flexible feet of other great apes. Current understanding of the evolution of human walking is based on research from the 1930s, which proposes that human feet function very differently to those of other apes, due to the development of arches in the mid-foot region and the supposed rigidity of that on the outside edge of the foot. In a study of more than 25,000 human steps made on a pressure-sensitive treadmill ...

Genome researchers at Bielefeld University decode the hamster genome

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: