Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Similarity and Versatility of Lanthanides: Mixed and Matched for Medical Applications

Since lanthanides were discovered in the 18th century, they fascinate scientists due to their similarity in chemical behavior and versatility in physical properties. It is thus not surprising, that lanthanides are part of uncountable applications in modern industry, electronics, magnets, light sources and medical applications. Especially, as the lanthanide elements are not naturally occurring in living organisms, it is essential that the molecular dynamics and chemical as well as physical properties are understood in detail for in vivo applications. In this thesis, different lanthanide-containing compounds and nanoparticles were investigated to gain deeper knowledge of fundamental processes governing physical properties and synthetic procedures.BT/Biocatalysi

Designing a Course for Stimulating Entrepreneurship in Higher Education through Serious Games

Enhancing the offer for entrepreneurship education is an important challenge for the nowadays knowledge societies. The eSG project is addressing this issue by analysing the added value that could be contributed by employing serious games (SGs) as a tool for allowing students – in particular technology students - to become familiar, mainly through practice, with basic concepts of entrepreneurship and company management. This paper presents the main requirements for the course and SGs obtained by surveying literature, entrepreneurs, students and teachers. We represented the requirements in a table template keeping into account usability, pedagogy, the entrepreneurship skills expressed by state of the art models and three major axes for entrepreneurship education at universities. These table descriptors were then used to assess validity of SGs and choose an appropriate mix for the courses. We have also defined a set of metrics to evaluate the advancement of students during the course. Based on these tools and knowledge, the next steps of the project will involve extensive user testing in the actual courses that are being performed in Genoa, Delft and Barcelona.Multi Actor SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Cluster optical coding – from biochips to counterfeit security

Spatially tuned resonant nano-clusters allow high local field enhancement when excited by electromagnetic radiation. A number of phenomena has been described and subsequently applied for the construction of novel nano- and bionano-devices. Easy to manufacture, cost efficient and high throughput transducers using metal cluster resonance technology are based on surface-enhancement of metal cluster light absorption (SEA). The optical phenomenon driving SEA in metal cluster films is the so-called anomalous absorption. At a well defined nanometric distance of a cluster to a mirror the reflected electromagnetic field has the same phase at the position of the absorbing cluster as the incident fields. This feedback mechanism strongly enhances the effective cluster absorption coefficient. Such a system is characterized by a narrow reflection minimum. Based on this SEA-phenomenon (licensed to and further developed by november AG) a number of commercial products has been constructed. BrandsealingR uses the patented SEA cluster technology to produce optical codings. Cluster SEA thin film systems show a characteristic color-flip effect and are extremely robust. Both properties are vital for application as a unique security feature. The specific narrow band multi-resonance of the cluster layers allow easy authentication of the optical code. This can be achieved with a hand-held reader being developed by november AG and Siemens AG. SEA features are machine-readable which makes them superior to comparable technologies. Cluster labels are available in two formats: as a label for tamper-proof product packaging, and as a direct label, where label and logo are permanently applied directly and unremovable to the product surface. Together with Infineon Technologies and HUECK FOLIEN, the SEA technology is currently developed as a direct label for e.g. SmartCards.Institute of Analytical BiotechnologyApplied Science