Review Publications

Gene co-expression networks can be used to associate genes of unknown function with biological processes, to prioritize candidate disease genes or to discern transcriptional regulatory programmes. With recent advances in transcriptomics and next-generation sequencing, co-expression networks constructed from RNA sequencing ...

from Nature Reviews Neuroscience by Natasha Bray – Many genetic factors are thought to contribute to autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, whether the effects of these factors converge on common functional pathways is not clear. Now, Geschwind and colleagues at ...

An important step toward understanding gene regulation is the elucidation of the time necessary for the completion of individual steps. Measurement of reaction rates can reveal potential nodes for regulation. For example, measurements of in vivo transcription elongation rates reveal ...

The spatial information associated with gene expression is important for elucidating the context-dependent transcriptional regulation during development. Recently, high-resolution sampling approaches, such as RNA tomography or single-cell RNA-seq combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), have provided indirect ways to ...

Natural antisense transcripts, originally considered as transcriptional noises arising from so-called “junk DNA”, are recently recognized as important modulators for gene regulation. They are prevalent in nearly all realms of life and have been found to modulate gene expression positively ...

Small RNA-Seq has emerged as a powerful tool in transcriptomics, gene expression profiling and biomarker discovery. Sequencing cell-free nucleic acids, particularly microRNA (miRNA), from liquid biopsies additionally provides exciting possibilities for molecular diagnostics, and might help establish disease-specific biomarker signatures. ...

Single-cell gene expression profiling was pioneered more than 20 years ago using exponential amplification of cDNAs by PCR and linear amplification by in vitro transcription. These protocols, as well as the subsequent availability of high-density microarrays, led to the application ...

The manual for human development is written in the genetic code of our DNA. Our genes encode the instructions to make specific types of molecules that are needed to either build the human body or to control its day-to-day operations. ...

Tumor heterogeneity has been compared with Darwinian evolution and survival of the fittest. The evolutionary ecosystem of tumors consisting of heterogeneous tumor cell populations represents a considerable challenge to tumor therapy, since all genetically and phenotypically different subpopulations have to ...

The rapid advancement of emerging genomics technologies and their application for assessing safety and efficacy of FDA-regulated products require a high standard of reliability and robustness supporting regulatory decision-making in the FDA. To facilitate the regulatory application, the FDA implemented ...