Project description:A novel oligonucleotide microarray design is described whereby one can screen for all known oncogenic fusion transcripts by one microarray hybridization. Measurements of chimeric transcript junctions are combined with exon-wise measurements of individual fusion partners. Keywords: Nimblegen custom-design The pilot data included a design with 68,861 oligonucleotide probes covering all combinations of chimeric exon-exon junctions from 275 pairs of fusion genes, as well as sets of oligos internal to all the exons of the fusion partners. Proof of principle was demonstrated by detection of known fusion genes (such as TCF3:PBX1, ETV6:RUNX1, and TMPRSS2:ERG) from six positive controls consisting of leukemia cell lines and prostate cancer biopsies.
Project description:A novel oligonucleotide microarray design is described whereby one can screen for all known oncogenic fusion transcripts by one microarray hybridization. Measurements of chimeric transcript junctions are combined with exon-wise measurements of individual fusion partners. Keywords: Nimblegen custom-design
Project description:We detected fusion genes in 274 fresh surgical samples of gliomas using whole transcriptome sequencing. Using this approach we screened a panel of glioma samples and identified a number of activating novel fusion transcripts. Fusion detection in 274 glioma patients
Project description:Neuroblastoma tumors frequently show loss of heterozygosity of chromosome 11q with a shortest region of overlap in the 11q23 region. These deletions are thought to cause inactivation of tumor suppressor genes leading to haploinsufficiency. Alternatively, micro-deletions could lead to gene fusion products that are tumor-driving. To identify such events we analyzed a series of neuroblastomas by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays and integrated these data with Affymetrix mRNA profiling data with the bioinformatic tool R2 (http://r2.amc.nl). We identified three neuroblastoma samples with small interstitial deletions at 11q23, upstream of the forkhead-box transcription factor FOXR1. Genes at the proximal side of the deletion were fused to FOXR1, resulting in fusion transcripts of MLL-FOXR1 and PAFAH1B2-FOXR1. FOXR1 expression has only been detected in early embryogenesis. Affymetrix microarray analysis showed high FOXR1 mRNA expression exclusively in the neuroblastomas with micro-deletions and rare cases of other tumor types, including osteosarcoma cell line HOS. RNAi silencing of FOXR1 strongly inhibited proliferation of HOS cells and triggered apoptosis. Expression profiling of these cells and reporter assays suggested that FOXR1 is a negative regulator of forkhead-box factor mediated transcription. The neural crest stem cell line JoMa1 proliferates in culture conditional to activity of a MYC-ER transgene. Over-expression of the wild-type FOXR1 could functionally replace MYC and drive proliferation of JoMa1. We conclude that FOXR1 is recurrently activated in neuroblastoma by intrachromosomal deletion/fusion events, resulting in over-expression of fusion transcripts. Forkhead-box transcription factors have not been previously implicated in neuroblastoma pathogenesis. Furthermore, this is the first identification of intrachromosomal fusion genes in neuroblastoma. Time series Affymetrix U133p2 profiling of Osteosarcoma HOS cells transduced with FOXR1 targeted shRNAs or control shRNA
Project description:We detected fusion genes in 274 fresh surgical samples of gliomas using whole transcriptome sequencing. Using this approach we screened a panel of glioma samples and identified a number of activating novel fusion transcripts.