Category Archives: Transhuman News

About CGD

This is the home of the Candida Genome Database, a resource for genomic sequence data and gene and protein information for Candida albicans and related species. CGD is based on the Saccharomyces Genome Database and is funded by the National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research at the US National Institutes of Health.

JBrowse can be launched from any CGD feature's Locus Summary Page by clicking on the JBrowse logo about halfway down the page: The JBrowse window will be centered upon that feature.

Alternately, mouse-over "JBrowse" on the top menu bar of any CGD page, then select and click your organism of interest in the drop-down menu. The browser window will be centered on an arbitrary location of the genome.

Please see our JBrowse Help Page for more details. (Posted September 29, 2016)

Taking advantage of next-generation sequencing and achieving nearly 700-fold coverage, this phased, diploid assembly permits more sensitive, allele-specific analysis of the genome structure and funcion. A22 supersedes the previous Assembly 21 as the default genome sequence for C. albicans SC5314. All the previous assemblies remain available at CGD's download pages. (Posted June 27, 2014)

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Candida Genome Database

Yeast grow on an agar plate in the form of the microbes chromosomes, with colors representing whether a chromosome exists in a synthetic form (yellow) or just wild-type (orange).

Drew Gurian

By Ryan CrossMay. 8, 2017 , 2:15 PM

Tuesday morning, more than 200 biologists, businesspeople, and ethicists will converge on the New York Genome Center in New York City to jump-start what they hope will be biologys next blockbuster: Genome Project-write (GP-write), a still-unfunded sequel to the Human Genome Project where instead of reading a human genome, scientists create one from scratch and incorporate it into cells for various research and medical purposes. For example, proponents suggest that they could design a synthetic genome to make human cells resistant to viral infections, radiation, and cancer. Those cells could be used immediately for industrial drug production. With additional genome tinkering to avoid rejection by the immune system, they could be used clinically as a universal stem cell therapy.

The project got off to a bumpy start last year and despite the central rallying cry of a synthetic human genome, many of those attending the conference will bring in different expectations and ambitions. Some resent the unwanted attention and criticism that the projects public objective has brought, saying it distracts from the goal of improving DNA synthesis technologies, because cheaper and faster methods to write DNA have many applications in applied and basic research. Others say that a made-to-order human genome is inevitable anyway, hoping to seize the publicity and controversy it creates as an opportunity to educate the public about synthetic biology.

If you put humans as the target, even though you are not going to make a human baby, it will be provocative, it will be misinterpreted, but people will engage, says Andrew Hessel, a self-described futurist and biotechnology catalyst at Autodesk in San Francisco, California, a successful software company that specializes in 3D design programs for architecture and other fields that has been exploring synthetic biology applications in recent years. Hessel is one of the four founders of GP-write, along with lawyer Nancy Kelley and geneticists Jef Boeke of New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City and George Church of Harvard University.

GP-write debuted prematurely in May 2016, when an invitation-only meeting at Harvard became public and sparked a media firestorm about the lack of transparency for an initiative that to some people sounded like a plan to create genetically enhanced humansthe leaders say it isnt, although Church wasnt shy when musing aboutdesigner humans in a 2012 book he authored. The intent of the closed-door meeting was to allow scientists to speak freely, Hessel and the other leaders say, and to prepare a peer-reviewed paper describing the project that was later published in Science in June. The month gap between the meeting and the Science paper created further confusion because the papers embargo forbade scientists from discussing the project.

GP-writes founders hope that this weeks open meeting will reinforce the seriousness of the initiative. Ethicists and lawyers are now sprinkled throughout the groups many nooks, and several young biotech startups and software developers have expressed interest in GP-write. Scientists are also encouraged to propose their own pilot projects to serve as stepping stones, although many participants are careful to note that these projects are valuable regardless of whether the group decides to reach for the ultimate goal of synthesizing a human genome.

There is definitely an internal tension among GP-writes supporters, Hessel says. Scientists are a conservative community.

Hessel first proposed a vision to synthesize a human genome in a Huffington Post article back in 2012. Several years later, during an international conference about synthesizing the yeast genome in 2015, Hessel reiterated the goal in a panel discussion, saying it should be biologys next big science effort. Frankly, I was surprised that the scientific community hadnt organized to suggest something like this, Hessel says. It just seemed kind of obvious and I think it stunned the crowd.

A week later, Hessel called Church and asked whetherhe would be open to leading the initiative. Church agreed, providedBoeke, the leader of the international synthetic yeast project Sc2.0, came aboard as a co-leader. Boeke took a bit more convincing. My immediate reaction was, Oh my gosh, you have got to be kidding me, Boeke says. I am definitely the conservative of the group.

But then he was persuaded that some of the pilot goals of the project were worthwhile. I got most excited about it when George brought his idea of virus-resistant mammalian cells on the table, and the idea of an ultrasafe cell line, which could be a relatively short-term win, Boeke says. Engineering an ultrasafe cell line would be a boon to biotechnology companies that use large vats of cells to crank out biologic drugs or industrial molecules. They now must constantly monitor for signs of a viral infection that could wipe out tanks of cells across an entire manufacturing facility.

The synthetic biology effort was originally called Human Genome Project 2, but the founders changed the name to Human Genome Project-write by the time of the closed-door meeting last May. Since then, they dropped human in an attempt to diffuse public controversies. The human part of it really got a lot of people overly excited, and that kind of overshadowed the intent to make it be about writing genomic sequences in general, Boeke says. Both George Church and I from the very beginning always envisioned this as not being limited to humans. That expanded vision is particularly apparent in this weeks meeting, which will include talks from scientists working with genomes from species as varied as bacteria, yeast, octopuses, and plants.

But despite the carefully crafted allusion to the Human Genome Project, which garnered about $3 billionin financial support from government and industry, GP-write, for now, doesnt have any money to offer researchers. We hope the [National Institutes of Health] will be involved in GP-write but thus far they havent been as enthusiastic as we are, Boeke says.

GP-writes current funding is a far cry from the $100 million they hoped to raise in 2016. Last year, Autodesk contributed $250,000 to GP-write to kick-start planning and organization. The next round of funding may come from Labcyte, a firm specializing in machines that manipulate miniscule amounts of liquid through ultrasound.According to a meeting organizer, Labcyte will be GP-writes first corporate partner. The company confirms it has made a 3-year financial commitment, but has not disclosed the terms yet.

So far, scientists hoping to be part of GP-write are pursuing synthetic biology pilot projects with funding theyve gotten independently. Harris Wang of Columbia University told ScienceInsider that he will receive $500,000 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to engineer about 40 nonhuman metabolic genes into human cells, enabling them to produce the nine essential amino acids that we now must get from our diet. A small tech company called Chromologic received $200,000 from DARPA to study methods for shuttling large strands of synthetic DNA into cells, although this project was not explicitly related to GP-write. And early stage startup Neochromosome, which includes Boeke, intends to raise money to design synthetic chromosomes for medicine that could be used in an off-the-shelf universal cell line in cell therapies and transplants with minimal risk of rejection from the immune system.

Technical feasibility aside, an undertaking right now to synthesize a complete human genome would be extraordinarily expensiveeasily upwardof $100 million with current pricing. The human genome is 3 billion nucleotides long. Thats a million times bigger than the longest piece [of DNA] we make today, says Emily Leproust, CEO of Twist Bioscience in San Francisco. Her company has developed a faster, higher-throughput method to assemble DNA for about $0.09per base compared witha previous average of $0.25, she says. And although companies like Twist could stand to benefit from large orders of DNA from GP-write, she notes that to do the kind of science that the GP-write is talking about, there needs to be a massive technology improvement.

One young startup, Molecular Assemblies in San Diego, California, has rejected the decades-old organic chemistry method of linking DNA bases. Instead, they are refining a new method that utilizes a little-studied DNA-making enzyme found in some cells. The company anticipates going commercial within 2 to 3 years with a process using a template independent polymerasean unusual enzyme that, unlike most polymerases, synthesizes DNA without having a strand whose sequence can be copied. Our nascent company motto is that we think DNA will be the industrial polymer of the 21st century, chief scientific officer Bill Efcavitch says. Beyond the numerous synthetic biology applications, Efcavitch envisions that cheaper and more rapid DNA synthesis will push innovation in nanotechnology applications, such as using DNA for biosensors and data storage.

There is lots of good science going on, but it is initiated and funded outside GP-write, because there is no funding yet, says Seattle, Washingtonbased biotech investor Robert Carlson, an author of the GP-write paper published in Science. You can conceive of this meeting as some people gathering around a beer or a whiteboard and saying, 'Lets lay out some experiments to test some ideas about how genomes are put together and why they are organized the way they are.'

Whetherthe project develops financial legs to carry out its goals remains to be seen, but at the very least, it is recruiting a passionate, if not fully unified, group. At the end of the day, it is really about putting the foundation in place to write much larger genomes than we are presently able to, and to recognize that these technologies are coming very quickly whether we are ready for them or not, Hessel says. I think this is just going to be a kickass meeting. The room is going to be full of interesting folks. And I am sure there will be dissenters too.

Correction, 6:25 P.M. This story has been changed to clarify that no specific announcement regarding Labcyte's funding is planned for the New York meeting.

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Money still missing as the plan to synthesize a human genome takes ... - Science Magazine

According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, about 300 different species have had their entire genomes sequenced. Us, obviously, but also rats, puffer fish, fruit flies, sea squirts, roundworms, chickens, dogs, yeast, honey bees, gorillas, chimpanzees, sea urchins, a bunch of bacteria, and many assorted other birds, plants, animals, and fungi.

New to the list is the orb-weaver spider Nephila clavipes. Analysis of this spiders genome hints at how spider silk evolved, helping us to understand the whole system better and bringing us that much closer to our ultimate goal of one day making super-strong spider silk to achieve our own ends. (Mwhahahaha...)

Orb weavers, the kind that weave circular webs, comprise the third largest family of spiders: about 3,000 species. Each female orb weaver can produce different kinds of silk in her different kinds of silk glands. The silk used for draglines, bridges, and web radii has great tensile strength.The silk used for prey wrapping and egg-case insulation is strong yet flexible. The silk used for prey capture is sticky and viscous.

Spider silks can be stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar, in the words of the University of Pennsylvania researchers who just reported the new genome, yet are much lighter weight than these manmade materials. They can conduct electricity, are resilient to temperature fluctuations, have antibiotic properties, and are undetectable by our immune system. Hence our desire to figure out how to make them, for future medical and industrial uses.

Spider silks are made of proteins called spidroins, for spider fibroins. The orb weavers genome provides the first compilation of all the spidroins in a given species, and it offers some surprises. First off, the genome includes eight as-yet-unreported spidroins fora total of 28.

Historically, as spidroins were discovered, they were named after the particular silk gland in which they were first found. But looking at gene expressionrevealed that each silk gland produced spidroins formore than one type of silk, and sometimes spidroins showed up in glands distinct from their namesakes.

One of the novel spidroins was expressed exclusively in venom glands, suggesting that it may have a function beyond silk-related applications. Much like spider silk, spider venom is a complicated mixture of proteins. The production of both are ancient and defining characteristics of orb-weaving spiders.

Spidroins have a shared beginning and end, but vary in the middle. The middle of the protein is comprised of pieces from a set of400 different motifs. Each spidroin contains a different combination of these motifs mixed and matched in different orders and with different frequencies, and this variation confers their specific and different physical properties. This observation lends credence to the idea that the spidroin genes evolved by means of tandem duplication events, wherein these motifs got copied.

And the beginnings and ends of the molecules, while similar enough to stay recognizable, are more variablethan most other genes. These two propertiesa hypervariable middle section sandwiched between two moderately variableregionsmake for a highly plastic protein molecule that can evolvefairly rapidly.The researchers suggestthat the spidroin gene family is still evolving, meaning wed probably learn more by looking through the genomes of some more spiders.

Nature Genetics, 2017. DOI: 10.1038/ng.3852 (About DOIs).

This post originated on Ars Technica

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Spider genome reveals new genes and proteins involved in silk production - Ars Technica UK

Science Daily

New and improved genome sequence of Daphnia pulex Science Daily Researchers have completed a new and improved genome sequence of Daphnia pulex (D. pulex), providing a clearer roadmap of the organism's genome so they can identify the genes and pathways that make this organism so successful in freshwater ... and more »

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New and improved genome sequence of Daphnia pulex - Science Daily

Xconomy San Diego

San Diegos Edico Genome, highlighted in Mondays media debut of Dell Technologies Capital, said today it has raised $22 million in Series B financing led by the Dell investment arm. All existing investors, including Qualcomm Ventures, Axon Ventures, and biotech industry executive Greg Lucier, participated in the round.

The new cash, which brings Edicos total funding to $32 million, will be used to fuel expansion and further development of Edicos Dragen technology. Theres a lot of additional engineering and software development that needs to be done, and Edico also plans to expand its sales and marketing team, CEO Pieter van Rooyen said yesterday. He expects the company will grow from 50 employees to close to 60 by the end of the year.

In 2014, Edico introduced its Dragen processor on a standard computer expansion bus (similar to a graphics processing card) as a combination of hardware and software that was optimized for genomics data processing. The Edico chip, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), was intended to accelerate the process of reading sequenced nucleotidesA, C, T, or Gfrom the short DNA segments produced by high-throughput sequencing, and to align them with a reference genome. Its a computationally intensive process referred to as genome mapping that Edico has reduced from 20 hours to 20 minutes.

The company sells its technology to high-throughput genome sequencing centers, academic research institutions, and clinical labs, accelerating the processing time for clinical diagnoses and scientific insights. Edico says its customers have cumulatively processed more than 12 petabytes of genomic data. (If a byte of data was a single grain of rice, Edico says one petabyte would be enough rice to blanket Manhattan.)

Edico also has established technology partnerships with Dell EMC, Intel, IBM, Amazon Web Services, and others to develop cloud-based services for analyzing and storing genomic data. Under this software-as-a-service model, van Rooyen said, We get paid for the number of DNA petabases that get sequenced.

Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call (619) 669-8788

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Edico Genome Raises $22M to Expand Data Processing and Web Services - Xconomy