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

Advanced nano-biocomposites based on starch

Starch as a biopolymer directly extracted from nature has received much attention in recent years due to its strong advantages such as low cost, wide availability, renewability, and total compostability without toxic residues. Starch-based materials always display properties that are less satisfactory than those of traditional polymer materials, which can be ascribed to the inherent characteristics of starch. To make such materials to be truly competitive and to widen its applications, the development of starch-based nano-biocomposites could be a promising solution. This chapter provides the fundamental knowledge related to starch-based nano-biocomposites as well as the most recent developments in this area. Various types of nanofillers that have been used with plasticized starch are discussed such as montmorillonite, cellulose nanowhiskers, and starch nanoparticles. The preparation strategies for starch-based nano-biocomposites with these types of nanofillers and the corresponding dispersion state and related properties are also largely discussed