As many teams forge into the genetic unknown without microsatellites to guide them, Giulia Kennedy and colleagues have been at the test track putting SNPs and microsatellites through a side-by-side comparison.

Cigarette smoking causes chronic lung diseases, including cancer, by affecting lung cells known as airway epithelial cells. However, little is known about the normal function of these cells, how they are affected by cigarette smoke, and to what extent they recover after a person stops smoking. Researchers at Boston University are collaborating with Affymetrix to measure gene expression in airway epithelial cells in healthy non-smokers, smokers, and former smokers. They hope to learn more about these processes to develop novel methods for assessing an individual's lung cancer risk and may even identify novel therapeutic targets.

Unbiased Mapping of Transcription Factor Binding Sites along Human Chromosomes 21 and 22 Points to Widespread Regulation of Noncoding RNAs
S. Cawley and S. Bekiranov et. al
March, 2004

In collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, the Transcriptome Project seeks to construct maps locating the sites of RNA transcription across the entire human genome using high-density whole-genome arrays interrogating at a resolution of about every 5 to 10 nucleotides. Maps and underlying data at a 35 bp resolution for human chromosomes 21 and 22 are currently available.

Review summaries of recent collaborative research findings.