In the News
2011
CGR investigators, Drs. Meredith Yeager, Kevin Jacobs, Zhaoming Wang, and Stephen Chanock, speak on genomic approaches used in identifying and characterizing cancer susceptibility regions in the human genome, and future trends in this research at GWAS 2011: Opportunities and Challenges in Anhui, China. This conference was organized by Nature Genetics in association with Anhui Medical University in China.
Also read the accompanying commentary Milestone in Anhui in Nature Genetics 2011 Jun 28;43(7):613.
Now available at dbGAP: Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) Imputation Reference Dataset, a new resource for imputation of SNPs for existing and future genome-wide association studies (GWAS).
Wang Z, et al. Improved Imputation of Common and Uncommon Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) with a New Reference Set. Nature Precedings Nov 7, 2011.
2010
CGR staff receive SAIC-Frederick Achievement awards
Dr. Meredith Yeager is tireless in supporting the highest-quality science at SAIC-Frederick, and in assisting NCI investigators as well as her own staff at the NCI Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory (CGR). Her generous spirit is epitomized in her mentoring of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, investigators, and staff affiliated with CGR and the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, as well as in her work on the interdivisional Center of Excellence in Integrative Cancer Biology and Genetics. She selflessly assists others with data preparation, insightful analysis, and manuscripts.resulting in more than 35 peer-reviewed publications during the past year alone.
Kevin Jacobs, Director of Bioinformatics and Scientific Operations, CGR, leads a team of software developers and analysts who manage and analyze all data generated within the laboratory. In 2010, the laboratory generated more than 10 billion genotypes while conducting whole-genome-wide association studies, 20 large-scale next-generation five whole-genome-wide association study manuscripts in Nature Genetics. Jacobs's invaluable contributions ensure that CGR remains a world-class laboratory on the cutting edge of genetics and genomics.
Zhaoming Wang leads CGR's Genome-wide Association Study and Analysis Group. Under Wang's leadership, the group increased its efforts from processing and analyzing one or two studies to having the capacity to process dozens simultaneously, without sacrificing quality or precision, and most importantly, without hiding vital biological and epidemiological details. Wang has been in the forefront of recent genome-wide association study discoveries of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, and has made significant contributions to NCI's effort to find genetic risk variants that underlie a variety of cancer types.
Casey Dagnall has been critical to the success of multiple process implementations, improvements, and cost savings initiatives. She recently implemented a new copy number variant detection process that enables CGR to double its throughput while maintaining high-quality data based on internal controls, genotyping controls, and extensive data analysis. She has completed 13 projects to date, consisting of more than 17,000 samples, with completion rates between 95 and 98 percent. In addition, she authored all the standard operating procedures for this new process and trained production staff to successfully transition the new assay as a service offering.
CGR project managers are responsible for, among other things, the qualification of samples for genotyping. Microsatellite data are used to determine whether individuals are redundant in the data set, contaminated, or discordant with expected values. By excluding these samples when moving into often expensive genotyping platforms, the team has created a fiscally prudent process, particularly useful for genome-wide association study assays, which cost several hundred dollars per sample to run. Because of CGR's high-throughput, the cost savings even impacts lower-cost assays. In fiscal year 2010, CGR project managers performing pre-genotyping quality control saved NCI approximately $804,000 and increased the data quality provided to investigators.
August 2, 2009
NIH NewsRisk of Pancreatic Cancer Linked to Variation in Gene that Determines Blood Type
April 20 2009
NCI press releaseResearchers Discover Potential Functional Role of Genetic Variation in Prostate Cancer Risk
March 29 2009
NCI press release Researchers Identify Genetic Variations That May Increase Risk of Breast Cancer
January 6 2009
The National Cancer Institute's NCI-60 cell line panel is a public resource that has been extensively described for a broad array of biological outcomes and characteristics within the cancer research community (Shoemaker 2006). Adding to this rich resource, the CGR has genotyped the panel using the Illumina Human1M genotyping array; the results are now posted at (ftp://ftp-snp500cancer.nci.nih.gov/nci60/).
February 10 2008
The National Cancer Institute featured a recent prostate cancer follow up study published in Nature Genetics, and appeared on-line on 2/10/08.
June 1 2007
NPR interview discussing genetic factors related to breast cancer
May 29 2007
New York Times article discussing CGEMS breast cancer study.
May 27 2007
The CGEMS team replicated an association with SNPs in the FGFR2 gene and breast cancer risk. The manuscript describing these findings was published in Nature Genetics, first appearing on-line on 5/27/07
Other links to press coverage:
April 15 2007
The CGEMS breast cancer association and frequency data were made available to the public through the data portal jointly developed by caBIG and CGEMS.
April 1 2007
CGR members have helped to identify a second prostate cancer risk locus on chromosome 8q24. The manuscript describing the findings, the first to be published from the CGEMS project, was published in Nature Genetics, and appeared on-line on 4/1/07.
Other links to press coverage:
February 5 2007
A new build of the CGEMS prostate cancer scan data is released through the data portal.
October 19 2006
The Phase 1a CGEMS prostate cancer association and frequency data were made available to the public through a data portal jointly developed by caBIG and CGEMS.
