Future Sensitivity Studies for Supersymmetry Searches at CMS at 14 TeV

The sensitivity for CMS searches for supersymmetry is evaluated in the context of an upgraded LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 300 fb-1. Results for several key searches for supersymmetry are presented including direct and gluino-mediated stop and sbottom production and electroweak production of supersymmetric particles.Comment: Presentation at the DPF 2013 Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields, Santa Cruz, California, August 13-17, 201

Heavy Flavor Production at CMS

Measurements of heavy flavor production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7.0 TeV recorded at the CMS experiment are presented. Double differential cross sections with respect to transverse momentum and rapidity are shown for J/Psi and Upsilon(1S), Upsilon(2S), and Upsilon(3S). The inclusive open beauty rate is measured with two different techniques, including a study of the angular correlations between b jets in events with two identified b jets. Lastly, the B+, B0, and B0s production rates are measured from the reconstruction of exclusive final states.Comment: Proceedings from talk given at Rencontres de Moriond QCD 2011 on behalf of the CMS collaboration. 4 pages, 3 figure

Performance of the CMS tracking detectors from the 2009 LHC run

The 2009 run provided the first proton-proton collisions from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at center of mass energies of 900 GeV and 2.36 TeV. The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment has recorded a large sample of minimum bias events from these collisions. We present results from the all silicon tracking detectors from this run. The performance of the tracker and track reconstruction algorithms are considered including signal-to-noise, efficiencies and comparisons to simulation for track parameter and resonance reconstruction performance.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, proceedings from the 2010 Lake Louise Winter Institut

Supersymmetry Searches with Multiple b-jets at CMS

Recent results from CMS are reviewed for searches for supersymmetry in final states with multiple bottom quark jets. Results are based on the full 2012 CMS dataset consisting of 19.5 fb-1 collected at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. In particular, searches for final states with multiple b-jets and one or two leptons are presented. These final states are of special interest in the context of the search for third generation squarks in gluino or sbottom cascade decays, as predicted by natural supersymmetry.Comment: Proceedings for presentation at the 2013 European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics, Stockholm, Sweden, 18-24 July, 201

Supersymmetry: Experimental Status

This talk presents results from the CMS and ATLAS Collaborations from searches for physics beyond the Standard Model motivated by supersymmetry from Run 1 of the LHC. Representative searches are described to illustrate the diverse nature of the search program in both background estimation techniques and final state topologies. The status of preparation for Run 2 searches at 13 TeV is also presented.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, proceedings prepared for LHCP201

Measurements of CKM Angle Beta from BABAR

We present recent results of hadronic B meson decays related to the CKM angle beta. The data used were collected by the BABAR detector at the pepII asymmetric-energy e+e- collider operating at the Upsilon(4S) resonance located at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.Comment: 6 pages, contributed to the Proceedings of the Lake Louise Winter Institute 200

Characterization of the Poly-T Variant in the TOMM40 Gene in Diverse Populations

We previously discovered that a polymorphic, deoxythymidine-homopolymer (poly-T, rs10524523) in intron 6 of the TOMM40 gene is associated with age-of-onset of Alzheimer's disease and with cognitive performance in elderly. Three allele groups were defined for rs10524523, hereafter ‘523’, based on the number of ‘T’-residues: ‘Short’ (S, T≤19), ‘Long’ (L, 20≤T≤29) and ‘Very Long’ (VL, T≥30). Homopolymers, particularly long homopolymers like ‘523’, are difficult to genotype because ‘slippage’ occurs during PCR-amplification. We initially genotyped this locus by PCR-amplification followed by Sanger-sequencing. However, we recognized the need to develop a higher-throughput genotyping method that is also accurate and reliable. Here we describe a new ‘523’ genotyping assay that is simple and inexpensive to perform in a standard molecular genetics laboratory. The assay is based on the detection of differences in PCR-fragment length using capillary electrophoresis. We discuss technical problems, solutions, and the steps taken for validation. We employed the novel assay to investigate the ‘523’ allele frequencies in different ethnicities. Whites and Hispanics have similar frequencies of S/L/VL alleles (0.45/0.11/0.44 and 0.43/0.09/0.48, respectively). In African-Americans, the frequency of the L-allele (0.10) is similar to Whites and Hispanics; however, the S-allele is more prevalent (0.65) and the VL-allele is concomitantly less frequent (0.25). The allele frequencies determined using the new methodology are compared to previous reports for Ghanaian, Japanese, Korean and Han Chinese cohorts. Finally, we studied the linkage pattern between TOMM40-‘523’ and APOE alleles. In Whites and Hispanics, consistent with previous reports, the L is primarily linked to ε4, while the majority of the VL and S are linked to ε3. Interestingly, in African-Americans, Ghanaians and Japanese, there is an increased frequency of the ‘523’S-APOEε4 haplotype. These data may be used as references for ‘523’ allele and ‘523’-APOE haplotype frequencies in diverse populations for the design of research studies and clinical trials

Plasma lipid biomarker signatures in squamous carcinoma and adenocarcinoma lung cancer patients

There is a clinical need for reliable biomarkers for lung cancer that permit early diagnosis of the disease and provide prediction of histological phenotype. A prospective study design was used with a study population of patients with suspected lung cancer. Blood samples were collected from 17 patients with histologically confirmed squamous cell lung carcinoma, 17 individuals with adenocarcinoma, and 17 control individuals who did not subsequently have a diagnosis of lung cancer or any other cancer. Blood plasma samples were analysed for their lipid profiles using liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry. Data were analysed using multivariate statistical methods. There was good separation between histological subtypes and control groups and also between individuals with a subsequent diagnosis of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (sensitivity 80 %, specificity 83 %, Q2 = 0.70). Alterations in the levels of different classes of lipids including triglycerides (TGs), phosphatidylinositols (PIs), phosphatidylcholines (PCs), phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs), free fatty acids, lysophospholipids and sphingolipids were observed in squamous carcinoma and adenocarcinoma lung cancer patients when compared with control patients. In conclusion, this study has identified candidate lipid biomarkers of non-small cell lung cancer patients which may be helpful to indicate the tumour subtype and to differentiate them from patients who do not have lung cancer. Measuring these biomarkers has the potential to improve diagnosis in patients with suspected lung cancer and risk stratification in screening

2q36.3 is associated with prognosis for oestrogen receptor-negative breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy.

Large population-based registry studies have shown that breast cancer prognosis is inherited. Here we analyse single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of genes implicated in human immunology and inflammation as candidates for prognostic markers of breast cancer survival involving 1,804 oestrogen receptor (ER)-negative patients treated with chemotherapy (279 events) from 14 European studies in a prior large-scale genotyping experiment, which is part of the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS) initiative. We carry out replication using Asian COGS samples (n=522, 53 events) and the Prospective Study of Outcomes in Sporadic versus Hereditary breast cancer (POSH) study (n=315, 108 events). Rs4458204_A near CCL20 (2q36.3) is found to be associated with breast cancer-specific death at a genome-wide significant level (n=2,641, 440 events, combined allelic hazard ratio (HR)=1.81 (1.49-2.19); P for trend=1.90 × 10(-9)). Such survival-associated variants can represent ideal targets for tailored therapeutics, and may also enhance our current prognostic prediction capabilities

Polygenic Risk Scores for Prediction of Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Subtypes

Stratification of women according to their risk of breast cancer based on polygenic risk scores (PRSs) could improve screening and prevention strategies. Our aim was to develop PRSs, optimized for prediction of estrogen receptor (ER)-specific disease, from the largest available genome-wide association dataset and to empirically validate the PRSs in prospective studies. The development dataset comprised 94,075 case subjects and 75,017 control subjects of European ancestry from 69 studies, divided into training and validation sets. Samples were genotyped using genome-wide arrays, and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected by stepwise regression or lasso penalized regression. The best performing PRSs were validated in an independent test set comprising 11,428 case subjects and 18,323 control subjects from 10 prospective studies and 190,040 women from UK Biobank (3,215 incident breast cancers). For the best PRSs (313 SNPs), the odds ratio for overall disease per 1 standard deviation in ten prospective studies was 1.61 (95%CI: 1.57-1.65) with area under receiver-operator curve (AUC) = 0.630 (95%CI: 0.628-0.651). The lifetime risk of overall breast cancer in the top centile of the PRSs was 32.6%. Compared with women in the middle quintile, those in the highest 1% of risk had 4.37- and 2.78-fold risks, and those in the lowest 1% of risk had 0.16- and 0.27-fold risks, of developing ER-positive and ER-negative disease, respectively. Goodness-of-fit tests indicated that this PRS was well calibrated and predicts disease risk accurately in the tails of the distribution. This PRS is a powerful and reliable predictor of breast cancer risk that may improve breast cancer prevention programs.NovartisEli Lilly and CompanyAstraZenecaAbbViePfizer UKCelgeneEisaiGenentechMerck Sharp and DohmeRocheCancer Research UKGovernment of CanadaArray BioPharmaGenome CanadaNational Institutes of HealthEuropean CommissionMinistère de l'Économie, de l’Innovation et des Exportations du QuébecSeventh Framework ProgrammeCanadian Institutes of Health Researc