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Characterizing cancers from liquid biopsies and FFPE samples: The rise of targeted sequencing panels
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| 04/01/16 | Volume 352, Issue 6281 | |||
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A roundup of the week's top stories in Science: |
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| In Brief | |
SCI COMMUN
In science news around the world, Japan loses contact with its
recently launched ASTRO-H x-ray observatory, a yellow fever outbreak
ravages Luanda and depletes the World Health Organization's stockpile of
vaccines, Ecuador names its first marine sanctuary around some of the
waters of the Galápagos islands, the U.S. House of Representatives
budget committee releases a plan that would eliminate the Department of
Commerce and curb many research programs at the Department of Energy and
the National Science Foundation, Japan's Kamioka Gravitational Wave
Detector begins its first test run, and more. Also, embattled trachea
surgeon Paolo Macchiarini is fired from the Karolinska Institute. And a
new expedition to climb Mount Everest-a joint effort between a Welsh
athlete and the
University of South Wales, Pontypridd, in the United Kingdom-gets
underway, with an eye to studying the mechanisms that link hypoxia with
cognitive decline and dementia.
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| In Depth | |
Ecology
Dennis Normile
Even as recently as early March, Australian coral reef scientists
still hoped that the legendary Great Barrier Reef (GBR) would get off
lightly in the current El Niño, the climate phenomenon that brings
unusually warm water to the equatorial Pacific, stressing and often
killing corals. No such luck. On 20 March, the GBR Marine Park Authority
in Townsville, Australia, reported that divers were finding extensive
coral bleaching-the loss of symbiotic algae-in remote northern areas of
the reef. Many sections were already dead. Subsequent flyover surveys
have confirmed an unfolding disaster, with only four of 520 reefs
appearing unscathed. The GBR joins a lengthening list of reefs bleached
because of the El Niño that started in late 2014. It is now the longest
bleaching event
ever, and many more corals worldwide will likely die.
Planetary Science
Eric Hand
Investigators with NASA's Curiosity rover are exploring dark sand
dunes on Mars and have discovered structures thought to be unlike any on
Earth: ripples spaced about 3 meters apart, intermediate in size
between the little ripples and big dunes found on both planets.
Scientists aren't sure how they form, but they think the density of the
thin martian atmosphere plays a role in shaping them. If they can find
the fossilized ripples in rocks hardened from ancient dunes, they could
glean clues about the thicker atmosphere of early Mars. The result is
one of the highlights of a campaign to investigate the dunes in Gale
Crater that gird the mountain the rover is trying to get to. For several
weeks this past December and January, the rover stopped to take
pictures, make wind measurements, and
sift sand into its chemical analysis instrument.
Cancer Research
Herton Escobar
A showdown over a controversial cancer therapy has intensified,
pitting Brazil's scientists against its congress. Last week, responding
to a clamor from politicians and desperate patients, the congress voted
to legalize the production and distribution of synthetic
phosphoethanolamine, even though the putative cancer drug has not been
clinically tested or registered with the Brazilian Health Surveillance
Agency. Scientists blast the legislation as a travesty. Apart from
patient testimonials and a few preliminary studies in tumor cell lines
and in mice, critics say, there is no evidence of the safety or efficacy
of the compound, popularly known as the "cancer pill" or "fosfo."
Several thousand patients are estimated to have taken it. Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseff has until 13 April
to decide whether to sign the bill into law.
Science Funding
Wayne Kondro
The first budget from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brought smiles to
the faces of Canadian scientists last week. The Liberal government's
2015-16 fiscal blueprint pumps up the country's three funding councils
after years of static or declining budgets. It also resurrects several
initiatives from the last budget of a Liberal government, presented in
2005, before the Conservatives took power under Stephen Harper and
launched what many scientists regarded as a "war on science." The new
budget includes a host of scientific goodies-and promised more to
come-that are part of what Finance Minister Bill Morneau called "a new
vision for Canada's economy as a center of global innovation, renowned
for its science, technology, resourceful citizens, and globally
competitive companies." Katie
Gibbs, who leads Evidence for Democracy, a pro-science advocacy group
based in Ottawa, says, "I think it shows strong support for science, and
it marks a significant turning point for science in Canada compared
with previous budgets."
Biomedicine
Jocelyn Kaiser
A new grant program launched by the National Institute of General
Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to give researchers more stable, flexible
funding is drawing concern because it has resulted in big cuts to some
lab budgets. The program, Maximizing Investigators' Research Award, is
part of an effort across the National Institutes of Health to expand the
agency's use of awards that support people based on their track record,
not projects. As a pilot test, in January 2015 NIGMS invited
established investigators with at least two standard R01 research grants
to apply for a MIRA in exchange for "somewhat less" funding. On
average, the new awards amount to a 12% cut in a recipient's overall
average NIGMS funding for the past 5 years, with much deeper cuts for
some. Some recipients say they feel
duped.
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| Feature | |
Mitch Leslie
Immunologists thought they knew the main players in our immune
system. But they have become convinced that temporary immune command
posts erected by the body, called tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) or
tertiary lymphoid organs, are far more important to the body's defenses
than previously realized. These organized congregations of immune tissue
can sprout at sites of inflammation or infection almost anywhere in the
body. They appear to instigate immune system counterattacks against
pathogens and tumors-and may also promote the self-directed attacks of
autoimmune diseases and the rejection of transplanted organs. These
days, research on TLS "is exploding," says immunologist Andreas
Habenicht of the University of Munich in Germany. Armed with new
understanding of the signals that
create these structures, drug companies have even begun testing
compounds to block TLS formation in people with autoimmune diseases.
Rhitu Chatterjee
Farm workers in southern India are dying from chronic kidney disease,
and no one knows what is causing it. But a rash of similar outbreaks in
other countries, including Central America, Sri Lanka, and Egypt, has
underscored that it is a global problem. Public health experts and
researchers are alarmed and baffled. In Central America, which has been
hit the hardest, the leading hypothesis is that this is an occupational
disease, caused by chronic exposure to heat and dehydration in the cane
fields. But in India, as in Sri Lanka and Central America, researchers
are pursuing a wide range of ideas, including contaminants in drinking
water, excessive use of over-the-counter painkillers, and exposure to
pesticides. The beginnings of an international scientific network to
study the disease
and pinpoint a cause are now taking shape.
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