1,051 results match your criteria: "Broad Institute: The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard[Affiliation]"

The large-scale experimental measures of variant functional assays submitted to MaveDB have the potential to provide key information for resolving variants of uncertain significance, but the reporting of results relative to assayed sequence hinders their downstream utility. The Atlas of Variant Effects Alliance mapped multiplexed assays of variant effect data to human reference sequences, creating a robust set of machine-readable homology mappings. This method processed approximately 2.

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  • Nigeria reported its first mpox cases in nearly 40 years five years before the 2022-2023 outbreak, with ongoing human-to-human transmission driving the epidemic.
  • Researchers analyzed 112 mpox virus genomes from Nigeria (2021-2023) and traced the lineage back to its emergence around July 2014 from southern Nigeria, specifically Rivers State.
  • The study also found that human-to-human transmission significantly increased the virus's evolutionary rate and emphasized the importance of better pathogen surveillance and response strategies.
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  • Nigeria and Cameroon reported their first mpox cases in over 30 years starting in 2017 and 2018, with Nigeria's outbreak recognized as a human epidemic.
  • The study focused on understanding the zoonotic transmission dynamics of the mpox virus across the Nigeria-Cameroon border, revealing ongoing cases driven by a new Clade IIb.1 lineage and highlighting significant cross-border viral spread.
  • The findings indicate that southern Nigeria is likely the origin of the mpox epidemic, with evidence of a zoonotic precursor lineage present in local animal populations for over 45 years, emphasizing the persistent risk of MPXV emergence in both countries.
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Parental Perspectives Regarding the Return of Genomic Research Results in Neurodevelopmental Disorders in South Africa: Anticipated Impact and Preferences.

Res Sq

June 2024

Neuroscience Unit, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust, Center for Geographic Medicine Research Coast, Kilifi, Kenya; Department of Psychiatry, UnivInstitute of Human Development, Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya.

Few policies and little research exist regarding the disclosure of genomic results to research participants in Africa. As understanding participant preferences would be pivotal to the success of the feedback process, this study set out to address this issue by engaging with enrolled participants from an ongoing genomics research project on neurodevelopmental disorders with the aim to assess the anticipated impact of receiving pertinent results and explore the preferences for feedback in a South-African context. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 parents of children participating in the research study.

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Genome-Wide Polygenic Risk Score Predicts Incident Type 2 Diabetes in Women With History of Gestational Diabetes.

Diabetes Care

September 2024

Division of Data Science Research, Innovative Biomedical Technology Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Article Synopsis
  • Women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D), and researchers are exploring if genetic markers can enhance prediction of this risk.
  • The study analyzed data from 1,895 women across diverse backgrounds and found that those who developed T2D had higher polygenic risk scores (PRS), indicating a genetic predisposition for the disease.
  • Incorporating PRS into existing risk assessment models provided a slight improvement in predictive accuracy for T2D, suggesting that genetic information can be beneficial, although not drastically transformative.
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An expanded CAG repeat in the huntingtin gene () causes Huntington's disease (HD). Since the length of uninterrupted CAG repeat, not polyglutamine, determines the age-at-onset in HD, base editing strategies to convert CAG to CAA are anticipated to delay onset by shortening the uninterrupted CAG repeat. Here, we developed base editing strategies to convert CAG in the repeat to CAA and determined their molecular outcomes and effects on relevant disease phenotypes.

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  • The TWINGEN study aims to identify individuals at high risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) by assessing various cognitive and health-related factors through an observational clinical recall and biomarker analysis.
  • The study involves around 800 participants, gathering data through blood samples, questionnaires, and wearable technology for lifestyle metrics, while also including a smaller group for in-person assessments.
  • All data collected will be integrated with existing Finnish biobank records and utilized for further research, following ethical guidelines set by relevant authorities.
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Individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) carry a markedly increased risk of stroke, with distinct clinical and neuroimaging characteristics as compared to those without diabetes. Using whole-exome or whole-genome sequencing of 1,051 individuals with T1D, we aimed to find rare and low-frequency genomic variants associated with stroke in T1D. We analysed the genome comprehensively with single-variant analyses, gene aggregate analyses, and aggregate analyses on genomic windows, enhancers and promoters.

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Although large-scale genetic association studies have proven useful for the delineation of neurodegenerative disease processes, we still lack a full understanding of the pathological mechanisms of these diseases, resulting in few appropriate treatment options and diagnostic challenges. To mitigate these gaps, the Neurodegenerative Disease Knowledge Portal (NDKP) was created as an open-science initiative with the aim to aggregate, enable analysis, and display all available genomic datasets of neurodegenerative disease, while protecting the integrity and confidentiality of the underlying datasets. The portal contains 218 genomic datasets, including genotyping and sequencing studies, of individuals across ten different phenotypic groups, including neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lewy body dementia, and Parkinson's disease.

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Background: In estrogen receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer, mutations (ESR1) are a common mechanism of acquired resistance to aromatase inhibitors (ArIh). However, the impact alterations have on CDK4/6 inhibitor (CDK4/6i) sensitivity has not been established. Analyses of CDK4/6i trials suggest that the endocrine therapy partner and specific allele may affect susceptibility.

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Carrier screening has historically assessed a relatively small number of autosomal recessive and X-linked conditions selected based on frequency in a specific subpopulation and association with severe morbidity or mortality. Advances in genomic technologies enable simultaneous screening of individuals for several conditions. The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics recently published a clinical practice resource that presents a framework when offering screening for autosomal recessive and X-linked conditions during pregnancy and preconception and recommends a tier-based approach when considering the number of conditions to screen for and their frequency within the US population in general.

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  • The study investigates the genetic basis of supraventricular tachycardias, focusing on atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) and atrioventricular accessory pathways/reciprocating tachycardia (AVAP/AVRT).
  • Through multiancestry meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies, researchers identified significant genetic loci associated with AVNRT and AVAP/AVRT, implicating specific genes in these cardiac conditions.
  • The results suggest that gene regions related to ion channels and cardiac development play crucial roles in susceptibility to supraventricular tachycardias, potentially influencing other cardiovascular issues such as atrial fibrillation
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  • Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified genes linked to telomere length, but previous research hadn't validated these findings until now.
  • In a large analysis involving over 211,000 people, the study discovered five new signals linked to telomere length and highlighted the importance of blood/immune cells in this area.
  • The researchers confirmed that the genes KBTBD6 and POP5 truly affect telomere length by demonstrating that manipulating these genes can lengthen telomeres and that their regulation is crucial for understanding telomere biology.
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Preclinical human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) mechanisms is one of 5 focus areas of the Challenges in IBD Research 2024 document, which also includes environmental triggers, novel technologies, precision medicine, and pragmatic clinical research. Herein, we provide a comprehensive overview of current gaps in inflammatory bowel diseases research that relate to preclinical research and deliver actionable approaches to address them with a focus on how these gaps can lead to advancements in IBD interception, remission, and restoration. The document is the result of multidisciplinary input from scientists, clinicians, patients, and funders and represents a valuable resource for patient-centric research prioritization.

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Origins and diversity of pan-isotype human bone marrow plasma cells.

bioRxiv

May 2024

Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Article Synopsis
  • Bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs) are important immune cells that produce different types of antibodies, including IgM, IgG, IgA, and occasionally IgE, with unclear origins and properties.
  • A study examined the transcriptional and clonal differences in BMPCs from food-allergic and non-allergic individuals, linking CD19 protein levels to BMPC longevity.
  • Findings indicated that diverse BMPCs have unique functional roles and that the majority of IgE-producing BMPCs come from peanut-allergic individuals, highlighting the role of the bone marrow in producing potentially harmful IgE antibodies involved in peanut allergies.
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A harmonized public resource of deeply sequenced diverse human genomes.

Genome Res

June 2024

Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA;

Underrepresented populations are often excluded from genomic studies owing in part to a lack of resources supporting their analyses. The 1000 Genomes Project (1kGP) and Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP), which have recently been sequenced to high coverage, are valuable genomic resources because of the global diversity they capture and their open data sharing policies. Here, we harmonized a high-quality set of 4094 whole genomes from 80 populations in the HGDP and 1kGP with data from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) and identified over 153 million high-quality SNVs, indels, and SVs.

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Recombinant ADAMTS13 for Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura.

N Engl J Med

May 2024

From the Blood Transfusion Service (P.K.B., K.N.R., P.A.R.B., W.H.D., J.A.S., R.S.M.), the Division of Hematology (P.K.B., R.K.L., W.H.D.), the Department of Pathology (B.H.F., J.L., M.Y.C., J.R.S., J.H.), and the Division of Cardiology (E.S.L., R.L.G.), Massachusetts General Hospital, the Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis (P.K.B., L.M.F., K.E.B., I.T., S.C.W.) and the Division of Hematology and Apheresis Service (B.J.C.), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School (P.K.B., J.L., M.Y.C., E.S.L., R.L.G., I.T., S.C.W., B.J.C., J.R.S., K.N.R., P.A.R.B., R.K.L., J.H., W.H.D., J.A.S., R.S.M.), Boston, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge (P.K.B.), the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington (D.P.), and the Department of Hematology and Clinical Oncology (A.R.A.) and the Department of Pathology, Transfusion/Apheresis Medicine Services (S.H., C.A.), UMass Chan Medical School-Baystate Health, Springfield - all in Massachusetts; the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle (B.H.F.); and Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (S.B.M., W.C., K.D.F.).

In patients with immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP), autoantibodies against the metalloprotease ADAMTS13 lead to catastrophic microvascular thrombosis. However, the potential benefits of recombinant human ADAMTS13 (rADAMTS13) in patients with iTTP remain unknown. Here, we report the clinical use of rADAMTS13, which resulted in the rapid suppression of disease activity and complete recovery in a critically ill patient whose condition had proved to be refractory to all available treatments.

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Chemical discovery efforts commonly target individual protein domains. Many proteins, including the EP300/CBP histone acetyltransferases (HATs), contain several targetable domains. EP300/CBP are critical gene-regulatory targets in cancer, with existing high potency inhibitors of either the catalytic HAT domain or protein-binding bromodomain (BRD).

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Embryonic microglia maintain the brain's cortical fault lines.

Trends Immunol

May 2024

Boston Children's Hospital, F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • Fetal cortical boundaries can be affected by morphogenetic stress, which impacts microglia development.
  • This altered state of microglia is similar to that seen after birth and is linked to brain structure, specifically axon-tracts.
  • One key function of these microglia is to prevent cavitary lesions by regulating the phagocytosis of fibronectin 1 through a pathway involving Spp1.
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Voltage imaging enables high-throughput investigation of neuronal activity, yet its utility is often constrained by a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Conventional denoising algorithms, such as those based on matrix factorization, impose limiting assumptions about the noise process and the spatiotemporal structure of the signal. While deep learning based denoising techniques offer greater adaptability, existing approaches fail to fully exploit the fast temporal dynamics and unique short- and long-range dependencies within voltage imaging datasets.

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Lethal phenotypes in Mendelian disorders.

Genet Med

July 2024

William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address:

Purpose: Existing resources that characterize the essentiality status of genes are based on either proliferation assessment in human cell lines, viability evaluation in mouse knockouts, or constraint metrics derived from human population sequencing studies. Several repositories document phenotypic annotations for rare disorders; however, there is a lack of comprehensive reporting on lethal phenotypes.

Methods: We queried Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man for terms related to lethality and classified all Mendelian genes according to the earliest age of death recorded for the associated disorders, from prenatal death to no reports of premature death.

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Aims: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and concomitant cardiometabolic disease processes interact and combine to lead to adverse events, such as stroke, heart failure, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular death. Circulating biomolecules provide quantifiable proxies for cardiometabolic disease processes. The aim of this study was to test whether biomolecule combinations can define phenotypes in patients with AF.

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Objective: The antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitides (AAV) are inflammatory disorders with ANCA autoantibodies recognising either proteinase 3 (PR3-AAV) or myeloperoxidase (MPO-AAV). PR3-AAV and MPO-AAV have been associated with distinct loci in the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) region. While the association between MPO-AAV and HLA has been well characterised in East Asian populations where MPO-AAV is more common, studies in populations of European descent are limited.

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