Genomic integrity Surprises

Post date: Dec 28, 2020 3:14:16 PM

There is always more to learn!

The same gene whose ATPase activity is responsible for silencing endogenous retroviruses in embryonic stem cells, SMARCAD1, with roles in chromatin structural remodelling and DNA repair, also causes some rare families to be born without fingerprints!

How and why will tell reveal more of the importance of genomic integrity, most likely...

What will we learn in the year to come, after our wild pandemic year?

At least we finally learned that our JOGL colleagues got into the finals for the XPRIZE, even though our Corona Detective's direct results were as good as we suspected, with no false positives or cross-reactivity with other pathogens in unknown samples, but simply not sensitive enough.

(We finally got back the 'decoded' unknown set run for the semi-finals, but still have not had confirmation as to whether the reactions ran by our colleagues in Sri Lanka on concentrated samples were also considered when they evaluated our results, unfortunately.)

Nonetheless, we are certainly still very glad to be part of this big open science collaboration, with some of our quencher probes on their way to Berkeley from Paris already, to help for their finals' efforts. Fingers crossed.

Getting more easy diagnostic tests out, even as vaccinations are beginning, is still necessary, especially in resource-strapped settings...

Take care.