Discover how genome sequencing is helping us uncover much more about the world around us in Wellcome Genome Campus’ new family-friendly exhibition, Curious Nature. The exhibition is part of Open Saturdays at the Campus, which are free to attend but booking is required.

The findings, published today (23 July) in Nature Ecology & Evolution, reveal fresh insights into how new disease-causing strains of the bacteria – called Staphylococcus aureus – emerge.

The Wellcome Sanger Institute is pleased to announce that Omer Bayraktar will be joining its Cellular Genetics Faculty in August 2018 to create a map of the individual cells and networks in the cortex of the human brain. Omer’s work will help to lay the foundations needed to understand how this complex region of the brain develops and functions.

The study in Nature Biotechnology revealed that standard DNA tests miss finding this genetic damage. This has safety implications for future gene therapies using CRISPR/Cas9, because the unexpected damage might lead to dangerous changes in some cells. The authors caution that specific testing may be required for potential gene therapies.

Wellcome Sanger Institute researchers and collaborators found that patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) had genetic changes in their blood years before they suddenly developed the disease. The study published in Nature shows that further research could allow earlier detection and monitoring of people at risk of AML in the future.

For the first time, the transmission of cholera has been tracked at the household level across Dhaka, Bangladesh, a city with a ‘hyper-endemic’ level of the disease. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators found that nearly 80 per cent of the cholera transmission in Dhaka occurred between people who shared a household. The results of the large-scale genomic study could be used by public health officials to improve cholera control strategies.

In response to the UK Parliament Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry, the Sanger Institute has made a number of recommendations: that the current immigration system is not fit for purpose and therefore it should not be transposed onto EEA nationals, once the UK leaves the EU and that Students from EEA countries who have completed undergraduate qualifications in the UK should be given time to remain in the UK to allow them to look for work.

The genetic causes of a group of related infant cancers have been discovered by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Wuerzburg and their collaborators. Whole genome sequencing of tumours revealed mutations which are targetable by existing drugs used to treat lung cancer and melanoma.

The first genetic marker for the bone tumour, osteoblastoma, has been discovered by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators. The results, published in Nature Communications, will help clinicians correctly distinguish benign osteoblastoma tumours from aggressive osteosarcoma tumours and direct the correct treatment.

Five Cambridge science institutions have won a bid to engage the local region with science as part of European Researchers Night*, the largest public science event in Europe. LIFE LAB is one of four UK initiatives awarded funding from the European Commission. It will establish a programme of pop-up science events in shopping centres, cafes and music venues across Cambridgeshire on 28th September 2018 and again on 27th September 2019.