Category Archives: Genome

Regulatory News:

Cellectis plant sciences, the plant genome engineering company and subsidiary of Cellectis SA (Paris:ALCLS), has signed two new agreements with Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of Bayer AG and a leader in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control, on gene editing in plants. The agreements extend the companies existing partnership to introduce targeted modifications to selected plant genes and genomes. The financial terms of these agreements are not disclosed.

The first aim of this extended partnership is to collaboratively create commercial traits for the canola seed market using new technologies developed by Cellectis plant sciences. The second aim is to provide Bayer with access to technologies that enable the directed engineering of plant genomes, such as gene stacking and targeted mutagenesis, for the development of improved crops.

These novel technologies work efficiently in plant cells and will be an important tool to improve crops, said Catherine Feuillet, Head of Trait Research at Bayer CropScience. They facilitate the creation of specific modifications in the plant genome or genes and thus minimize the genetic footprint left behind.

These new agreements position Cellectis plant sciences as a key partner for Bayer CropScience, commented Luc Mathis, CEO of Cellectis plant sciences. Following the technical success we have achieved with all our programs in potatoes and oil crops, such as soybean and canola, the development of new commercial products relevant for the food industry has become the focus of our company.

About Cellectis plant sciences Established in March 2010, Cellectis plant sciences is a subsidiary of Cellectis (Alternext: ALCLS) dedicated to the applications of nucleases in plants. Its main mission is to increase and accelerate usage of Cellectiss proprietary technology in agricultural biology, broaden the companys platform to attract new and expanded licensing opportunities and explore the development of proprietary traits for selected applications. Cellectis plant sciences is located in New Brighton, Minnesota, USA. Professor Daniel Voytas, Chief Scientific Officer of Cellectis plant sciences, is also Director of the University of Minnesota Center for Genome Engineering. For further information, please visit our website: http://www.cellectis.com

About Cellectis Cellectis is a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology. The companys mission is to develop a novel generation of therapy based on allogeneic T-cell to treat cancer. Cellectis capitalizes on its 14 years of expertise in genome engineering -based on TALEN, meganuclease, and, the state-of-the-art electroporation technology Pulsagile- to create the 4th generation of cancer immunotherapy to treat leukemia and solid tumors. Cellectis adoptive cancer immunotherapy to cure chronic and acute leukemias is based on the first allogeneic T-cell Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) technology. CAR technologies are designed to target cell surface antigens expressed on cells. These treatments reduce toxicities associated with current chemotherapeutics and have the potential for curative therapy. The Cellectis Group is focused on life sciences and use leading genome engineering technologies to build innovative products in various fields and markets. Cellectis is listed on the NYSE Alternext market (ticker: ALCLS). To find out more about us, visit our website: http://www.cellectis.com.

About Bayer CropScience Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 8,383 million (2012) and is one of the worlds leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 20,800 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: http://www.press.bayercropscience.com

Disclaimer This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for shares in Cellectis in any country. This press release contains forward-looking statements that relate to the Companys objectives based on the current expectations and assumptions of the Companys management only and involve unforeseeable risk and uncertainties that could cause the Company to fail to achieve the objectives expressed by the forward-looking statements.

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Cellectis Plant Sciences and Bayer CropScience Extend Their Partnership to Improve Crops by Gene Editing

Even though the genomes of most modern-day non-African humans possess are just one or two percent Neanderthal,up to 20 percent of the Neanderthal genome could be found in today's humans collectively, new research suggests.

At least one-fifth of the Neanderthal genome may lurk within modern humans, influencing the skin, hair and diseases people have today, researchers say.

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Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineage, other groups of early humans used to live on Earth. The closest extinct relatives of modern humans were the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia until they went extinct about 40,000 years ago. The ancestors of modern humans diverged from those of Neanderthals between 550,000 and 765,000 years ago.

Recent findings revealed that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of modern humans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa perhaps about 40,000 to 80,000 years ago, although some research suggests the migration began earlier. About 1.5 to 2.1 percent of the DNA of anyone outside Africa is Neanderthal in origin.

However, scientists reasoned that the Neanderthal DNA found in one person might not be the same Neanderthal DNA of someone else. [See Photos of Our Closest Human Ancestor]

"If you are 2 percent Neanderthal and I'm 2 percent Neanderthal, we might not have the same Neanderthal DNA between us," said study lead author Benjamin Vernot, a population geneticist at the University of Washington in Seattle. "We might have inherited different portions of the Neanderthal genome.

This logic suggested a significant portion of the Neanderthal genome might survive within the genomes of present-day humans. Past calculations suggested that anywhere from 35 to 70 percent of the Neanderthal genome could exist in modern people.

To find out just how much of the Neanderthal genome might hide within modern humans, Vernot and his colleague Joshua Akey analyzed the genomes of 379 European and 286 East Asian individuals. This involved identifying the DNA that didn't look modern human, and determining when that DNA was introduced into the genome.

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Humanity could still carry up to 20 percent of the Neanderthal genome, say scientists

January 29, 2014

23andMe

First Ever Genome-Wide Association Study of Combined Phenotype May Allow for Improved Identification of Variants Associated with Asthma-With-Hay Fever

23andMe, the leading personal genetics company, has participated in the first ever genome-wide association study of the combined asthma-with-hay fever phenotype. Led by researchers at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, the study identified 11 independent genetic markers associated with the development of asthma-with-hay fever, including two associations reaching a level of significance with allergic disease for the first time. Through these findings, 23andMe aims to substantially improve the ability to detect genetic risk factors shared between both diseases.

Previous research has shown that both asthma and hay fever share 50-90 percent of their genetic susceptibility and 20-50 percent of their environmental susceptibility. 23andMe has collected information on both conditions through its asthma symptoms survey, and in this analysis used data contributed by 15,072 of its customers. Data was also collected from three additional studies conducted in Australia and the United Kingdom, with cases defined as persons who reported a physician diagnosis of asthma and also hay fever (total N=6,685). This group was compared to a control group of individuals who reported neither a diagnosis of asthma or hay fever (total N=14,091).

While previous analyses provided evidence of a stronger genetic association of this combined phenotype, there has not been a genome-wide association study exploring the connection in further detail, said David Hinds, Ph.D., study author and 23andMe principal scientist, statistical genetics. In this first-of-its-kind study, weve identified new genetic associations that can provide the means to identify people at risk for allergic disease with greater efficiency.

By considering the phenotype of asthma-with-hay fever, 11 independent variants with genome-wide significant associations with disease risk were identified, amongst which were variants in the 8q21 and 16p13 regions, which have now been established as containing genetic risk factors for allergic disease. The study also found that genetic risk factors for allergic disease are located in or near variants ZBTB10 and CLEC16A. Further investigations of the entities underlying both associations may help identify previously unrecognized pathways in the development of asthma and hay fever.

The study, titled Genome-wide association analysis of the phenotype asthma-with-hay fever for 20,000 persons identified 11 risk loci, including variants near ZBTB10 and CLEC16A was published on January 2, 2014 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

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23andMe Helps Find New Genetic Associations For Asthma-With-Hay Fever

Unlocking the Power of the Genome - from Conception to Centenarian
Matt Posard is the Senior Vice President of Translational and Consumer Genomics at Illumina Inc. Mr. Posard provides some concrete examples on how genomic se...

By: Mayo Clinic

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Unlocking the Power of the Genome - from Conception to Centenarian - Video

Winter Symposium 2014 - Health Sector Introduction
Session 2: Health Sector Brad Popovich of Genome BC provides an introduction to the Health Sector and introduces the speakers.

By: Genome BC

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Winter Symposium 2014 - Health Sector Introduction - Video

What can polymer physics say about genome folding?
This is a video abstract for the following scientific review article: Jonathan D. Halverson, Jan Smrek, Kurt Kremer and Alexander Y. Grosberg, From a melt of...

By: HalversonMedia

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What can polymer physics say about genome folding? - Video

By sequencing the deadly pathogens genome, scientists solve a mystery, and learn more about plague strains that still kill today

Researchers extracted DNA of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, from this tooth of a victim of the Plague of Justinian McMaster University

For the first time, researchers have sequenced the full genome of the bacterium that caused a plague that killed millions of people in the 6th century A.D., and discovered to their surprise that the outbreak was caused by a different strain of the same germ that was to blame for the more famous Black Death 800 years later. Their findings offer insight into the genetic factors that influence the virulence of the plague bacterium as well as other pathogens. Estimates vary for the number of people killed by the plague during the so-called Black Death that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351. But the number was certainly in the tens of millions; it is thought that as much as half of the entire European population at the time may have been killed by Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the plague. Almost exactly 800 years before the Black Death another plague pandemic swept through what was then the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire, reaching its peak in its capital Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) around A.D. 541. It is known as the Plague of Justinian, named for the Byzantine emperor at the time. Again, mortality estimates vary, but were likely also in the tens of millions, with one contemporary account estimating that as many as 100 million people had died. Scientists had determined fairly recently that both the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death were caused by the bacterium Y. pestis, and the full genome of the Black Death strain had been sequenced in 2011. But they didnt know whether both pandemics were caused by the same strain or different strains of the bacterium. To find out, a group of researchers extracted the pathogens DNA from the tooth of one of the Byzantine plagues long-buried victims. They published their findings online January 27th in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Co-author Hendrik Poinar, professor at McMaster University in Ontario, says he was surprised by the results; he had expected that both pandemics were caused by the same strain. In my mind, pretty much all plague [Y. pestis] strains around the world are capable of causing human disease, and if conditions were right, would probably be capable of causing these large pandemics again, says David Wagner, professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and the lead author of the paper. The fact that there were two separate strains that jumped from rats and fleas (which are the usual hosts of the plague bacterium) to humans, causing massive pandemics, underlines the virulence of the Y. pestis bacterium, he says. But although the bacterium may be biologically capable of causing another pandemic, Wagner doesnt think that theres much of a chance of that happening. Whats changed is not the organism. Whats changed is humans and human condition, he says. Hygiene has improved immensely you dont just have rats all over the place like you might have had during the time of the major pandemics. The second reason: antibiotics. Plague is highly susceptible to simple antibiotics, Wagner says. Although this is good news for people living in developed countries, the bacterium is still responsible for thousands of deaths every year in developing countries like Madagascar and Uganda. A lot of times these conditions in these developing countries arent much different, probably, from what the conditions were back during the first two pandemics, says Ken Gage, a plague researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was not involved in the study. In Madagascar, for example, the black rat is found throughout the island, Wagner notes. The researchers had also hoped to find clues in the Y. pestis genome as to what made this particular strain cause a pandemic that killed millions, whereas other strains have had no such effect on humans. But although they found some genes that might make this strain more virulent, there are no smoking guns, Wagner says. Poinar points out, however, that even the small changes in some regions of the pathogens genome can cause a tremendous physiological effect. He points out one particular region of the genome that has some interesting virulence functions on it. The next step of the research, he says, is isolating those different genes that may be responsible for increased virulence and testing them in controlled settings on rodents.

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Black Death Plague Strain Differs from That Which Killed Millions 800 Years Earlier

Brand Genome Project
The Brand Genome Project is the first-ever analysis across categories and countries that identifies, maps and tracks what the world #39;s most valuable brands st...

By: Brand Genome

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Brand Genome Project - Video

Winter Symposium 2014 - James Olson: Downstream Processing
Session 3: Forestry Sector James Olson of UBC talks about Downstream Processing and Genomics.

By: Genome BC

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Winter Symposium 2014 - James Olson: Downstream Processing - Video

Saudi Human Genome Program (Arabic version)

By: Saudi Genome

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Saudi Human Genome Program (Arabic version) - Video