Project description:A comparison between a human placental cell line (3A sub E placental, aka, PLC), human choriocarcinoma methotrexate-sensitive JEG3, and methotrexate-resistant JEG3R. This comparison focused on genomic 'hot spot' regions that are frequently mutated in human cancer genes.
Project description:In vertebrates, DNA methylation-mediated repression of retrotransposons is essential for the maintenance of genomic integrity. In the current study, we developed a technique termed HT-TREBS (High-Throughput Targeted Repeat Element Bisulfite Sequencing). This technique is designed to measure the DNA methylation levels of individual loci of any repeat families with next-generation sequencing approaches. To test the feasibility of HT-TREBS, we analyzed the DNA methylation levels of the IAPLTR family using a set of 12 different genomic DNA isolated from the brain, liver and kidney of 4 one-week-old littermates of the mouse strain C57BL/6N. This technique has successfully generated the CpG methylation data of 5,233 loci common in all the samples, representing more than 80% of the individual loci of the five targeted subtypes of the IAPLTR family. According to the results, approximately 5% of the IAPLTR loci have less than 80% average CpG methylation levels with no genomic position preference. Further analyses of the IAPLTR loci also revealed the presence of extensive DNA methylation variations between different tissues and individuals. Overall, these data demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the new technique, HT-TREBS, and also provide new insights regarding the genome-wide DNA methylation patterns of the IAPLTR repeat elements. High-throughput, single-base resolution, singlicate DNA methylation profiles of IAPLTR retrotransposons in the brain, liver , and kidney of four 1-week-old mouse littemates using the developed technique, HT-TREBS.
Project description:MicroRNAs are important negative regulators of protein coding gene expression, and have been studied intensively over the last few years. To this purpose, different measurement platforms to determine their RNA abundance levels in biological samples have been developed. In this study, we have systematically compared 12 commercially available microRNA expression platforms by measuring an identical set of 20 standardized positive and negative control samples, including human universal reference RNA, human brain RNA and titrations thereof, human serum samples, and synthetic spikes from homologous microRNA family members. We developed novel quality metrics in order to objectively assess platform performance of very different technologies such as small RNA sequencing, RT-qPCR and (microarray) hybridization. We assessed reproducibility, sensitivity, quantitative performance, and specificity. The results indicate that each method has its strengths and weaknesses, which helps guiding informed selection of a quantitative microRNA gene expression platform in function of particular study goals.
Project description:We evaluated whether targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) using the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Sequencer of cfDNA could identify prognostic or predictive factors for overall survival (OS) or progression free survival (PFS) within a large cohort of patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma enrolled in the GALAXY-1 trial.