Cookies on this website
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Continue' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

New sequencing method to detect DNA modifications of relevance to cancer

General Research

Ludwig Oxford researchers have developed a method to improve mapping of chemical, or “epigenetic”, modifications to DNA that alter gene expression and play a big role in both healthy biology and cancer

© Shutterstock

Ludwig Cancer Research scientists report in the current issue of Nature Biotechnology a new and improved method to detect chemical modifications to DNA. These modifications—or “epigenetic” marks—help control gene expression and their aberrant distribution across the genome contributes to cancer progression and resistance to therapy.

Led by Chunxiao Song and Benjamin Schuster-Boeckler, both assistant members of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Oxford, the study demonstrates that their method, dubbed TET-assisted pyridine borane sequencing, or TAPS, is a less damaging and more efficient replacement for bisulfite sequencing, the current gold standard for mapping epigenetic modifications to DNA.

Read more (Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research website)

Similar stories

NHS garden in full bloom at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The sun was shining for the RHS Chelsea Flower show press day earlier this week. One garden in particular bloomed particularly brightly, with the 'Finding Our Way: An NHS Tribute Garden' getting plenty of attention.

University of Oxford launches Podium Analytics Institute for Youth Sports Medicine and Technology

Oxford University has been selected as the home of the new Podium Analytics Institute for Youth Sports Medicine and Technology. This will be the world’s first academic Institute focused on young athletes’ safety and lifelong health and will combine Oxford’s longstanding tradition in sports and education with the very best of science, medicine, and technology.

QCovid highly commended for ‘best use of technology in Patient Safety’ at the 2021 HSJ Patient Safety Awards

Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox and her team in Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences have been Highly Commended in the ‘Best use of technology in Patient Safety’ category for the QCovid risk calculator at this year’s Health Service Journal Patient Safety Awards.

New guidelines to improve reporting standards of studies that investigate causal mechanisms

Researchers in the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS) have developed a new set of guidelines for reporting mediation analyses in health research.

Prestigious award for Oxford professor's diabetes work

A University of Oxford professor has been awarded the 2021 EASD-Novo Nordisk Foundation Prize for Excellence for his decades of effort to understand, prevent and combat type 1 diabetes.

COVID winter plan: UK blueprint doesn’t go far enough – here’s a health expert’s alternative