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.

Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics spun out of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, today announced that it has entered into a multi-year strategic collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to discover, develop and commercialise biomarkers, targets and medicines for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The genomes of more than 3,000 bacteria, including some of the world’s most dangerous, have been sequenced by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in collaboration with Pacific Biosciences (PacBio). Infecting tens of millions of people worldwide every year, these bacteria have been collected by the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) and include deadly strains of plague, dysentery and cholera.

The course ‘Bacterial Genomes: From DNA to protein function using bioinformatics’ was developed by researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Designed to teach researchers, students and health care professionals worldwide how to use online computational tools and databases to understand the roles bacterial genes play in health and disease, the course is free, and is open for enrolment now, with the course starting on 11 June 2018.

The evolutionary path of the deadliest human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, has been revealed for the first time. This parasite is a member of the Laverania parasite family that only infect the great apes including humans, chimpanzees and gorillas. Scientists from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators estimate that Plasmodium falciparum emerged as a human-specific parasite species earlier than previously thought. The study in Nature Microbiology gives clues to how deadly parasites emerge.

Reported in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, the study has also established an open genomic database of gonorrhoea. The new resource will support real-time ongoing surveillance of gonorrhoea worldwide, which public health officials could use to monitor which strains of gonorrhoea are present globally and where new antibiotic resistance is emerging.

Today (14 May 2018) Dr Peter Campbell joins 61 fellow researchers from 24 countries in being elected to membership of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). EMBO was created to promote excellence in molecular life sciences in Europe and each year recognises new members on the basis of scientific excellence.

Wellcome Sanger Institute Group Leaders Professor Nicole Soranzo and Dr David Adams are two of 48 world-leading scientists being honoured by the Academy of Medical Sciences for their outstanding contribution to biomedical science. David and Nicole were chosen from 410 candidates to join more than 1,200 existing Fellows whose innovative research is advancing understanding of health and disease and is benefitting society.

Today's announcement (9 May 2018) recognises Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski’s pioneering work on malaria, and particularly the use of genomic epidemiology to understand the evolutionary arms race that is going on between human, parasite and mosquito populations in Africa and other tropical regions of the world.