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Systems biology boosted by high thoughput sequencing:
23 April 09
As part of the international FANTOM Consortium, a Unit scientist, (Dr Colin Semple) has contributed to a study of the genome-wide dynamics of promoter usage in a human leukemia cell line, using high throughput sequencing of RNA over a time course of growth arrest and differentiation.
Many key transcription regulators and their target genes were identified and validated by systematic siRNA knockdown. The results emphasise the enormous complexity of networks maintaining cellular states and have relevance to our understanding of cancers, and also to diseases involving defects in immunity such as multiple sclerosis.
In addition, the experimental and analytical methods developed will be applied to other cell types, in our efforts to discover the complex systems underlying the behaviour of human cells during development and disease.
Links
- FANTOM studies networks in cells: Nature.com
- Genetic hope for MS and cancer patients: The Scotsman
- The transcriptional network that controls growth arrest and differentiation in a human myeloid leukemia cell line:
Nature Genetics
Darwin's evolutionary
tree inspired artwork:
13 May 2009
Darwin drew this evolutionary tree in 1837. What is remarkable is that the evolutionary trees that we draw today are essentially the same. This extraordinary drawing displays fundamental insight into how evolution happens. The essential crux of the evolution process is contained in this sketch, that every living organism is connected to every organism that ever lived at some point in history. Darwin then spent over 20 years developing his ideas which culminated in the publication of the “Origin of Species” in 1859. Sally's piece celebrates this remarkable diagram.
Sally Cross
Originally I made “Tree” as part of an exhibition called “Felt and Victoriana” that I contributed to last year. The Victorian era was a time of many new ideas and concepts. Among the most important and fundamental were evolution and the theory of natural selection put forward by Charles Darwin, which still have great impact today. His book “Origin of Species” published in 1859 revolutionised thought and challenged the accepted belief of the day that man held an omnipotent place in the world. My work explored evolutionary ideas through the medium of felt. “Tree” celebrates the evolutionary tree drawn by Charles Darwin in 1837 (shown above) which encapsulates the essential principles of evolution. Contemporary evolutionary trees take the same form, although now they are generated by computer programs using genetic data. While working on the pieces for the exhibition it struck me that the felting process can be viewed in an evolutionary way. How wool “evolves” into a felted object, the role of random events in the process and how some lead to success and others lead to dead ends.
Links
- Darwin, the genius of evolution: BBC
- Darwin's first sketch of an evolutionary tree of life
- Darwin's tree of life: Wikipedia