\u201cMutations are part of life. They are mistakes in a gene like typos in a text message,\u201d said Watanabe-Smith, a postdoctoral fellow with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. \u201cBut which mutations cause cancer? That\u2019s the real question. And this problem is impossible to understand without a strong model system to test those mutations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watanabe-Smith\u2019s research sought to better understand one \u201ctypo\u201d in a standard leukaemia assay, or test. While studying cancer biology and completing his doctorate in the lab of Brian Druker, M.D., at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, Watanabe-Smith encountered a new problem: an issue with the model system itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was sequencing the patient\u2019s DNA to make sure the original, known mutation is there, I was finding additional, unexpected mutations in the gene that I didn\u2019t put there. And I was getting different mutations every time,\u201d said Watanabe-Smith.<\/p>\n
He decided to formally study this phenomenon with his lab advisers, who included Druker; Cristina Tognon, Ph.D., scientific director, Druker lab; and Anupriya Agarwal, Ph.D., assistant professor of hematology & medical oncology, OHSU School of Medicine; researcher with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, all co-authors on the paper. <\/p>\n
His initial research, identifying and characterizing a growth-activating mutation in a patient with T-cell leukaemia and was first published last April. This research published was focused on better understanding the lab\u2019s model system, to ensure that future researchers trying to identify cancer-causing mutations are using accurate and reproducible methods.<\/p>\n
Their research investigates a common cell line assay, used since the 1980’s, to detect which mutations are important in driving leukaemia and other cancers. They found this assay is prone to a previously unreported flaw, where the cells, called Ba\/F3 cells, can acquire additional mutations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe potential impact is that a non-functional mutation could appear functional, and a researcher could publish results that would not be reproducible,\u201d Watanabe-Smith said. \u201cThen we had the question: ‘Did the cells transform because of a mutation the patient had, or did they transform because these new mutations they managed to pick up somewhere?’\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, he says, the research team recommends an additional step in the Ba\/F3 assay (sequencing outgrown cell lines) to improve reproducibility of future results. While the results urge further research, the message to scientific community is clear: There seems to be more potential for problems than previously anticipated in this standard assay.<\/p>\n
OHSU Knight Cancer Institutenews.ohsu.edu\/2017\/02\/21\/gene-mutations-cause-leukemia-but-which-ones<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cMutations are part of life. They are mistakes in a gene like typos in a text message,\u201d said Watanabe-Smith, a postdoctoral fellow with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. \u201cBut which mutations cause cancer? That\u2019s the real question. And this problem is impossible to understand without a strong model system to test those mutations.\u201d Watanabe-Smith\u2019s research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}