Blog Comments

Kinetica Online is pleased to provide direct links to commentaries from our senior editor Dr. Steven Pelech has posted on other blogs sites. Most of these comments appear on the GenomeWeb Daily Scan website, which in turn highlight interesting blogs that have been posted at numerous sites in the blogosphere since the beginning of 2010. A wide variety of topical subjects are covered ranging from the latest scientific breakthroughs, research trends, politics and career advice. The original blogs and Dr. Pelech’s comments are summarized here under the title of the original blog. Should viewers wish to add to these discussions, they should add their comments at the original blog sites.

The views expressed by Dr. Pelech do not necessarily reflect those of the other management and staff at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation. However, we wish to encourage healthy debate that might spur improvements in how biomedical research is supported and conducted.

Cancer gene mutation

Blurry Lines and the Cost Curve

The New York Times featured an article focusing on Complete Genomics' efforts to offer cheaper sequencing through the combination of biology, chemistry, and computing, and mentions the stiff competition in the field. S. Pelech mentions the results of a completed detailed meta-analysis of all of the reported mutations in over 3000 human genes that have been linked with cancer in one way or another that was performed at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation out of curiosity to see what might be expected from random sequencing of cancer genomes. These studies revealed that the vast majority of these cancer genes feature mutations that are apparently randomly distributed throughout their entire sequences, and in most cases less than 1% of their amino acids have been observed to be altered with any cancer. Moreover, for more than half of these cancer-associated genes, either none or only 1 or 2 mutations were reported. Read More...