August

Whole genome sequencing used to track infection's transmission path

Using whole bacterial genome sequencing to trace the transmission of a hospital-acquired infection is this month's genome advance of the month, a potentially important breakthrough for hospital epidemiology. Read more

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July

A Genetic Fountain of Youth?

This month's Genome Advance of the Month compares newborns and centenarians to see if epigenetic changes, or alterations in the signals on the genes rather than the genes themselves, could be associated with aging. Is this the genetic Fountain of Youth? Read more

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June

The Human Microbiome Project: Extending the definition of what constitutes a human

The June Genome Advance of the Month discusses how Human Microbiome research is demonstrating that the microbiome — the normal bacteria that live in and on us — is a major genetic signal in humans, contributing key properties essential to human function. Learn how these bacteria are not invaders but beneficial colonizers who ultimately care for our health. Read more

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May

Researchers view DNA through 3D lens

This month's Genome Advance of the Month explores two studies — one uncovering a functional role of DNA in chronic pain and another manipulating DNA to form useful shapes — both advances that translate 2D data into 3D thinking that may improve our 4D lives.
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April

Uncovering the Archeological Landscape of Cancer Genomes

This month's Genome Advance of the Month focuses on three studies highlighting the extraordinary potential of genomics in illuminating the genetic and epigenetic changes that induce a normal cell to become cancerous, guiding the development of more effective diagnostics and treatments. Read more

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March

Harnessing the full 'omics potential of personalized medicine

This month's Genome Advance of the Month focuses on a study by Stanford University's Michael Snyder, Ph.D. which demonstrated an integrative personal omics profile (iPOP) approach to personalized medicine can identify disease risks from a genomic sequence and can monitor disease states through other molecular components. Read more

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February

Discovering the Mutants Among Us

Last year, the Sanger Institute boldly announced "We are all mutants" when a study was published showing healthy individuals carry around 60 new mutations from their parents. However, not all of these mutations are meaningful, as some may fall in regions of the genome without any currently known function. The next Genome Advance of the Month focuses on a particular class of mutations: "loss-of-function (LoF) variants". Read more

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January

When cellular power plants go bad

The January genome advance of the month focuses on the using DNA sequencing to diagnose severe and confounding mitochondrial diseases. As many as 4,000 children in the United States are born with mitochondrial dysfunction every year. Researchers have identified 77 genes known to cause mitochondrial diseases, but the culprit gene remains elusive. Read more

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December

Population genomics:Answering questions from the microscopic to the geographic

The final Genome Advance of the Month for 2011 is actually a twofer, highlighting how population genomics can be used to answer questions in the diverse fields of vascular biology and anthropology. Read more

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November

Massively parallel sequencing: Taking an all-at-once approach to genetic testing in cancer

Thanks to the decrease in time and cost to analyze genes, scientists now are taking a broader approach by sequencing and analyzing multiple cancer-causing genes at once. Genome Advance of the Month details exactly such an approach, developed at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Read more

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October

Dissecting the cause of the Black Death

At the end of October, a group of scientists from Canada, Germany, and the United States published a paper that marries the fields of genomics, public health and archeology. The October Genome Advance of the Month reports on how they were able to sequence the genome of the bacteria responsible for the Black Death, a plague that swept Europe from 1347-1351, killing between 30 and 50 percent of the population. Read more

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September

Trauma regulates genes that predict survival

This month's Genome Advance of the Month describes genomic pathways that influence survival after a life-threatening traumatic injury. Read more

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August

Teaching Old Drugs New Tricks

The August Genome Advance of the Month spotlights two studies by Stanford University's Atul Butte M.D., Ph.D., that repurposed old drugs as new treatments for lung cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. Read more

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July

Proteus: Discovering the tiniest disease-causing flaws — and improving sequencing technologies

Proteus, a sea-god from Greek mythology, could change his shape to improve his fortunes. People suffering the syndrome that bears his name are not so lucky and the cause of their plight has been as mysterious as the disease can be debilitating. NHGRI's Genome Advance of the Month for July, however, provides the answer. Read more

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June

Transforming clinical care with whole genome sequencing

The June issue of Science Translational Medicine reported on fraternal twins from California, a brother and sister, who suffer from two inherited genetic mutations that threatened to impede or even prematurely end their lives. June's Genome Advance of the Month features how whole genome sequencing at the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Tex. — one of three facilities that comprise NHGRI's large-scale genome sequencing program — led to the discovery and treatment that transformed their lives. Read more

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May

Protecting the food supply and human health with genomics

The May Genome Advance of the Month is torn from the headlines about how the genomics revolution is protecting the public health — especially when it comes to food. A new strain of E. coli has caused an epidemic of food poisoning in Germany. As of June 7, 2011, more than 2,500 people have been sickened, 23 people have died and public health officials still do not know the source of the food contamination. Read more

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April

Using DNA Sequencing to Detect Early Organ Transplant Rejection

For people who have received an organ transplant — a heart or a kidney, for example — detecting rejection early can significantly improve their long-term health, even survival. But until now, doctors have had a hard time monitoring the health of transplanted organs; detecting rejection has required invasive — and risky ­­biopsies. A novel application of genome-sequencing technology developed by a group of researchers at Stanford University may soon solve that problem. Read more

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March

Sequencing Insights Into Multiple Myeloma

For the March Genome Advance of the Month, NHGRI has selected a study that shows how the power of sequencing technology has generated an important discovery, even when studying a relatively small number of patients, in this case only 38. The study, published in the March 24, 2011 issue of the journal Nature, describes how a nationwide team of researchers organized by Todd R. Golub, M.D., director of the cancer program at The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., made several new discoveries about the genetic causes of multiple myeloma. Read more

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February

UDP Discovers a new disease

An awful lot of cool science happens here at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but it's not every month that someone discovers a new disease. In February, the Undiagnosed Diseases Program (UDP) reported its first new diagnosis in the New England Journal of Medicine. Read more

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January

The Biology of Living Longer

The ability to reverse or halt the aging process has long held allure, from early human mythology to Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray) through to Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). It's also been the subject of considerable scientific study.In January 2011, a paper published in the journal Nature has shown, for the first time, a possible biological mechanism where halting the aging process might be possible. Read more

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