The new technology, called selective resequencing, promises to be a boon to many kinds of research, including efforts to comb vast stretches of the genome for mutant genes implicated in major diseases such as cancer and schizophrenia.
A team led by CSHL's Gregory Hannon, Ph.D. a molecular and cell biologist, and W. Richard McCombie, Ph.D., a molecular biologist who heads the Laboratory's gene sequencing center, sought an efficient way of separating what's most valuable in the genome from less important stretches of genomic code. In all, there are over 3 billion letters of code in the human genome, only 2 percent of which actually instructs cells to produce proteins, the workhorses of all life processes.
CSHL's new method is innovative because it enables genome scientists to save significant time and labor by capturing and then sequencing, or spelling out, genomic code culled from relatively small, focused areas as opposed to sequencing the entire genome and only afterward honing in on areas of interest.
In practical terms, this means that a new world of discovery is opening to scientists interested in studying the genomes of large groups of people on a comparative basis which is a prime basis for our insights about gene mutations that cause disease, said Dr. Hannon.
Dr. McCombie added: By enabling scientists to target a small fraction of the genome, our method makes it possible for people with interesting ideas, to do significant work, on a modest budget. This will afford researchers the opportunity to include enough samples to conduct truly meaningful genome-wide comparative studies.
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Brave volunteers in Denmark had an attack triggered by a team at Glostrup University Hospital using nitric oxide. The method developed in Glostrup is successful in triggering migraines in 60% to 70% of sufferers. Asked about these volunteers' readiness to have a migraine triggered in the name of science, Principal Investigator Michel Ferrari was very positive: 'The migraine population as a whole is very happy with initiatives like this. They feel they are being taken seriously. It has been established that this is a real disease,' he says.
While EUROHEAD has shown migraine-sufferers that they are being taken seriously, it has also indicated to the world that Europe should be taken seriously as a centre of excellence for migraine research. 'Europe is already the centre of excellence for migraine research. It is striking that, in other medical areas, the US is leading, but not in this area,' says Dr Ferrari. Moreover, most of the important research groups in this field were members of the EUROHEAD consortium.
The team has been contacted by researchers in every continent interested in collaborating on future research. Many have even sent genetic material from new families of migraine-sufferers. The EUROHEAD team is following up on the invitations that it has received, and many joint publications are in the pipeline.
EUROHEAD is currently experiencing what Dr van den Maagdenberg refers to as the 'magnet effect'. 'Everybody's looking at EUROHEAD as the experts on migraines,' he said.
Dr van den Maagdenberg welcomes the critical mass, the integration of research teams and the momentum created by EUROHEAD. When the right call is published under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the team will apply for further funding with the ultimate aim of finding a cure for the migraine.
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