MUST READS

A February 18, 2015 Reuters article reported that new genetic research has revealed an "immune basis of Alzheimer's disease." According to the article, "Scientists for the first time have mapped out the molecular "switches" that can turn on or silence individual genes in the DNA in more than 100 types of human cells, an accomplishment that reveals the complexity of genetic information and the challenges of interpreting it…The epigenome map published on Wednesday shows how each of 127 tissue and cell types differs from every other at the level of DNA. Because scientists involved in the Roadmap project have been depositing their findings in a public database as they went along, other researchers have been analyzing the information before the map was formally published. One of the resulting studies show, for instance, that brain cells from people who died with Alzheimer's disease had epigenetic changes in DNA involved in immune response. Alzheimer's has never been seen as an immune-system disorder, so the discovery opens up another possible avenue to understand and treat it." Also covered by MIT News and The Verge.  

A February 17, 2015 The Independent (UK) article reported on the difficulties of developing new treatments for Alzheimer's. According to the article, "Scientific and financial challenges have meant that, between 1998 and 2012, there were 101 unsuccessful attempts to develop drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, with only three drugs gaining approval for treating symptoms of the disease, according to the study. The report, compiled by the Dementia Forum of the World Innovation Summit for Health (Wish), warned that a “history of failures” has created “funding fatigue” among donors and “Big Pharma”. Major drug companies had halved the number of research programmes into central nervous system disorders, a category which includes dementia, between 2009 and 2014, the report said. Experts said that with no known cure and a huge increase in cases expected within a decade, “a massive step change in research funding” was needed…The report sets out a range of potential new funding options for dementia research, including attracting private investment from industry and high net worth individuals. Social impact funds, in which governments or charities shoulder first losses from investments in order to “attract traditional return-for-investment focused investors, are also mooted."

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A February 2015 MIT Technology Review article highlighted new methods for growing human brain cells and the research's potential to "unlock the mysteries of dementia, mental illness, and other neurological disorders." According to the article, "Before it grows in one of Lancaster’s dishes, a brain organoid begins as a single skin cell taken from an adult. With the right biochemical prodding, that cell can be turned into an induced pluripotent stem cell (the kind that can mature into one of several types of cells) and then into a neuron. This makes it possible to do things that were impossible before. Now scientists can directly see how networks of living human brain cells develop and function, and how they’re affected by various drug compounds or genetic modifications. And because these mini-brains can be grown from a specific person’s cells, organoids could serve as unprecedentedly accurate models for a wide range of diseases. What goes wrong, for example, in neurons derived directly from someone with Alzheimer’s disease? The prospect of finding answers to such questions is leading pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers to seek collaborations with Lancaster and Jürgen Knoblich, whose lab at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna, Austria, is where Lancaster developed the organoids as a postdoc. The first of these collaborations was an investigation of microcephaly, a disorder characterized by small brain size, with Andrew Jackson of the University of Edinburgh. Using cells derived from a patient with microcephaly, the team cultured organoids that shared characteristics with the patient’s brain. Then the researchers replaced a defective protein associated with the disorder and were able to culture organoids that appeared partially cured.

A February 2015 MIT Technology Review article reported on the work of researchers to develop an "Internet of DNA" that would allow scientists to share a "global network of millions of genomes." According to the article, "In January, programmers in Toronto began testing a system for trading genetic information with other hospitals. These facilities, in locations including Miami, Baltimore, and Cambridge, U.K., also treat children with so-called ­Mendelian disorders, which are caused by a rare mutation in a single gene. The system, called MatchMaker Exchange, represents something new: a way to automate the comparison of DNA from sick people around the world…The way the math works out, sharing data no longer looks optional, whether researchers are trying to unravel the causes of common diseases or ultra-rare ones. “There’s going to be an enormous change in how science is done, and it’s only because the signal-to-noise ratio necessitates it,” says Arthur Toga, a researcher who leads a consortium studying the science of Alzheimer’s at the University of Southern California. “You can’t get your result with just 10,000 patients—you are going to need more. Scientists will share now because they have to.””