Accelerating Cancer Research

Creating robust biomarkers to detect cancer in its early stages will help inform doctors and patients about disease susceptibility, development, and progression. VBI researchers have developed a new technology that detects distinct genetic changes differentiating cancer patients from healthy individuals and could serve as a future cancer predisposition test. They're using this technology to pinpoint genetic biomarkers by looking at an individual's "junk" DNA. The majority of DNA is non-coding, meaning it's not transcribed into protein. The largest amount of this type of DNA consists of microsatellites - specific repeated sequences of nucleotides within the genome. There are over 2 million microsatellites in the human genome, yet only a small number of these repetitive sequences have previously been linked to disease, particularly cancer, neurological disorders, and heart disease. This tool can be used to identify and better understand genetic changes in many different types of cancer with the potential to serve as a universal cancer biomarker. It has already been instrumental in the discovery of a new biomarker that indicates an individual's increased risk for breast cancer. If doctors have a better test available, they can make sure the women who have the highest risk for breast cancer are getting properly screened and better understand the cause of the breast cancer that may develop in those 90 percent of patients who are not currently identified as high risk.

This work can be used now as a new test for breast cancer susceptibility and also for colon cancer susceptibility and possibly other types of cancer. VBI researchers believe this is just the beginning of what there is to be found in junk DNA.

Feeding The World

Deadly plant pathogens that attack crops critical to our food supply cost farmers billions of dollars in lost yield every year. VBI Professor Brett Tyler has uncovered how several of these pathogens attack crops as diverse as soybean, corn, grapes, and lettuce. Brett Tyler, professor in VBI's BioSystems Division, recently compared several pathogens and uncovered the mechanism by which they infect these host plants and keep them alive so that the pathogen can spread widely and more effectively. The payoff could be new ways to investigate how these pathogens wreak havoc and, in the long-term, finding how to prevent billions of dollars of losses for farmers growing crops across the globe. Working with VBI Associate Professor Chris Lawrence, who studies fungal-associated diseases in humans, they were also able to show that the entry process into some human cells takes place by the same mechanism.

Putting The Brakes On Disease Spread

Before our nation's decision makers can make preparations and design an action plan in the event of a major disease outbreak, they need to have as much useful information as possible involving what could happen if such an event were to occur. While these situations are difficult to predict, researchers have been creating models and simulations of pandemic infections - of outbreaks that have already happened, as well as theoretical outbreaks - to help advance preparation and planning efforts. In addition to disease outbreak, the use of high-performance computing capabilities can be used to better understand a number of other societal problems, which is a unique capability of VBI's Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory (NDSSL). Led by VBI Professor Chris Barrett, NDSSL's focus involves basic and applied simulation science. Not only does their work have public health applications, but it can also be used to better understand energy systems, wireless networks, power grids, commodity markets, and computational economics.