A fundamental change in our understanding of the childhood kidney cancer Wilms’ tumour is on the horizon, after the discovery of its earliest genetic root by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators. By comparing genome sequences from normal kidney tissue and tumours, the team identified patches of normal-looking kidney tissue that in fact carried DNA changes that cause Wilms’ tumour.

A new study has revealed how two molecular pathways play an important role in maintaining balance in the human intestine, and how disruption of these pathways is linked to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The project was a collaboration between the University of Oxford, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, King’s College London and the University of Cambridge.

Professor Muzlifah Haniffa from Newcastle University and the Wellcome Sanger Institute has won the 2019 Foulkes Foundation Medal for outstanding contributions to biomedical science.

Dr Sam Behjati has received this year’s Liddy Shriver Early Career Research Award, given by the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS). The Award highlights Dr Behjati’s internationally recognised, outstanding contributions as an early-career researcher working in the sarcoma field.

New research into the different life stages of malaria parasites has identified promising areas for new drug targets aimed at disrupting the parasite’s invasion of the liver. Scientists from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Bern and Umeå University discovered seven metabolic pathways that the parasite needs to infect the liver, where the parasite multiplies rapidly before invading the blood and causing malaria.

The £9.4m funding from Wellcome will support researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and nine other partner institutions involved in the Darwin Tree of Life project to launch the first phase of sequencing all the species on the British Isles. This will see the teams collect and barcode around 8000 key British species, and deliver high-quality genomes of 2000 species.

Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Amsterdam and their collaborators revealed that the measles virus deletes part of the immune system’s memory, removing previously existing immunity to other infections, in both humans and ferrets. Importantly, the team showed for the first time that measles resets the human immune system back to an immature baby-like state with only limited ability to respond to new infections.

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced $13 million in new grants to create a Gut Cell Atlas, cataloguing the many cell types in the small and large intestines. The initiative aims to understand distinct cell functions and interactions in human health and Crohn’s disease. Helmsley’s Gut Cell Atlas initiative is part of the larger international Human Cell Atlas collaboration

New insights into the journey from health to disease in the human liver have been made by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, the University of Cambridge and their collaborators. In the largest study of its kind, the team documented in unprecedented detail how the accumulation of changes in our DNA over time, known as mutations, evolves during the development of chronic liver disease and liver cancer.

The hidden world of genetic changes, or mutations, in healthy colon tissue has been uncovered by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators. The team developed technology to sequence the genomes of small numbers of colon cells, allowing them to study genetic mutations in unprecedented detail. Researchers found complex patterns of mutations, including changes in cancer genes, and a huge variability of mutations both within and between people.