Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer.

All cancers are caused by somatic mutations; however, understanding of the biological processes generating these mutations is limited. The catalogue of somatic mutations from a cancer genome bears the signatures of the mutational processes that have been operative. Here we analysed 4,938,362 mutations from 7,042 cancers and extracted more than 20 distinct mutational signatures. Some are present in many cancer types, notably a signature attributed to the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases, whereas others are confined to a single cancer class. Certain signatures are associated with age of the patient at cancer diagnosis, known mutagenic exposures or defects in DNA maintenance, but many are of cryptic origin. In addition to these genome-wide mutational signatures, hypermutation localized to small genomic regions, 'kataegis', is found in many cancer types. The results reveal the diversity of mutational processes underlying the development of cancer, with potential implications for understanding of cancer aetiology, prevention and therapy

A practical guide to single-cell RNA-sequencing for biomedical research and clinical applications.

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a genomic approach for the detection and quantitative analysis of messenger RNA molecules in a biological sample and is useful for studying cellular responses. RNA-seq has fueled much discovery and innovation in medicine over recent years. For practical reasons, the technique is usually conducted on samples comprising thousands to millions of cells. However, this has hindered direct assessment of the fundamental unit of biology-the cell. Since the first single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) study was published in 2009, many more have been conducted, mostly by specialist laboratories with unique skills in wet-lab single-cell genomics, bioinformatics, and computation. However, with the increasing commercial availability of scRNA-seq platforms, and the rapid ongoing maturation of bioinformatics approaches, a point has been reached where any biomedical researcher or clinician can use scRNA-seq to make exciting discoveries. In this review, we present a practical guide to help researchers design their first scRNA-seq studies, including introductory information on experimental hardware, protocol choice, quality control, data analysis and biological interpretation

Jerry Seinfeld: exploring human brand associations

This study uses a combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore the associations that consumers tie to a specific human brand (Jerry Seinfeld) prior to his anticipated co-branding partnership with a regional Australian financial institution. Results of the study identified strong and unique attribute and attitude associations in consumers’ knowledge networks linked to the Jerry Seinfeld brand. These findings have implications for the co-branding partner in terms of the development of strategic positioning focusing on the partners positive salient human brand associations. Interestingly, benefit associations were not identified in this study, suggesting that other methods may be more appropriate in eliciting consumer brand associations for human brands.Jasmina Ilicic and Cynthia M. Websterhttp://anzmac2010.org

The Celebrity Capital Life Cycle: A Framework for Future Research Directions on Celebrity Endorsement

© 2019, Copyright © 2019, American Academy of Advertising. This article introduces the celebrity capital life cycle as a structuring framework for the literature on celebrity endorsement. This framework comprises four stages: acquisition, consolidation, abrupt downfall/slow decline, and redemption/resurgence. The celebrity capital life cycle framework accounts for the ups and downs of celebrities’ career journey through fluctuations in their celebrity capital (i.e., accumulated media visibility; Driessens2013). We provide first a brief overview of the literature highlighting relevant research gaps, followed by an exposition of the conceptual underpinnings of the celebrity capital life cycle. We then develop future research directions for each stage of the celebrity capital life cycle that address the existing knowledge gaps