Research Area:
breast cancer; pancreatic cancer; prostate cancer; gastrointestinal disorders; urohaemolytic disorders; staphylococcal diseases

The blind mole rat (Spalax) is an intriguing creature worthy of study. This was animal research examining the resistance subterranean blind mole rats (Spalax) have to cancers. Blind mole rats are one of a unique group of animals that spend their lives underground, are tolerant of very low oxygen levels (down to only 3% concentration – levels that would kill a human), have a long lifespan of more than 20 years, which is exceptional for a small rodent, and show no clear signs of ageing or age-related diseases.

This research has demonstrated the unique abilities of the blind mole rat to resist cancer, even when directly given potent cancer-causing chemicals. In this study researchers gave blind mole rats potent cancer-causing chemicals either through injections or applied directly to the skin, but the animals didn't develop cancer.

Remarkably, connective tissue cells (fibroblasts) taken from the blind mole rat even prevented the growth of human cancer cells when they were grown together in the laboratory.

In the laboratory, the researchers also demonstrated how connective tissue cells called fibroblasts taken from the animal seem to play an important role in this cancer resistance. These cells prevented the growth of human cancer cells when the two types of cells were grown together in the laboratory.

The researchers concluded that, "This report provides pioneering evidence that Spalax [the blind mole rat] is not only resistant to spontaneous cancer, but also to experimentally induced cancer, and shows the unique ability of Spalax fibroblasts to inhibit growth and kill cancer cells, but not normal cells, either through direct fibroblast-cancer cell interaction or via soluble factors."

Nonetheless, there remains optimism that understanding the anti-cancer mechanisms of mole rats may one day help inform further cancer treatments for humans, but a lot more research – and probably a significant amount of time – is needed before this can be considered.

Reference:

Image: telegraph.co.uk

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/11/91

Manov, Irena, et al. "Pronounced cancer resistance in a subterranean rodent, the blind mole-rat, Spalax: in vivo and in vitro evidence." BMC biology 11.1 (2013): 91.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/01January/Pages/Claims-of-a-universal-cure-for-cancer-misleading.aspx

http://www.express.co.uk/news/health/454188/EXCLUSIVE-Cure-for-ALL-cancers-is-on-the-way-as-scientists-discover-major-breakthrough

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2540321/Could-mole-rats-hold-key-cure-cancer-Scientists-hail-potentially-life-changing-breakthrough.html

Place of employment and work

The candidate will be located at the Department of Experimental Oncology of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan (Italy), one of Europe’s leading research institutes in biomedical research, where he/she will also interact with one of the largest computational biology communities in Italy

Requirements:

The candidate should have a good knowledge of the UNIX system and good programming skills (bash, R, python, java). Background in bioinformatics would be appreciated but is not mandatory. Additional experience with containers (docker, singularity), grid computing, web frameworks, continuous integrations will be appreciated.

For further info or to arrange an informal interview, please write to arnaud.ceol@ieo.it

Source:http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1114866

Another video on precision medicine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi8W0yOXnzE

Precision Medicine basically intergrates bioinformatics, genomics , genetics, molecular biology and nanotechnology to deliver precise cure/diagnotics to a specific patient.

Examples:

• The drug imatinib (Gleevec) designed to inhibit an altered enzyme produced by a fused version of two genes found in chronic myelogenous leukemia.
• The breast cancer drug trastuzumab (Herceptin) works only for women whose tumors have a particular genetic profile called HER-2 positive.

E.g. source :

http://www.bionews-tx.com/news/2013/08/15/how-the-impact-of-cancer-genomics-on-precision-medicine-is-revolutionizing-cancer-treatment/

Address of the bookmark: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50149783n

More at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22671-6

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/dmcblab/InfoGenomeR

Selected Topics:

Cluster Dynamics
Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics
Forced Systems
Hamiltonian Dynamics
Synchronization & Control
Genomics & Systems Biology
Computational Neuroscience
Econophysics

More @ http://www.jnu.ac.in/Conference/SCS2013/

Research Area

Developmental biology, Computational biology, Simulation modeling, Image data analysis

Link @ http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/arolland/index.html

https://gold.jgi.doe.gov/

Address of the bookmark: https://gold.jgi.doe.gov/

https://www.hiv.lanl.gov/components/sequence/HIV/search/search.html

Address of the bookmark: https://www.hiv.lanl.gov/components/sequence/HIV/search/search.html