THE CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKAEMIA PROJECT REVEALS THE FIRST ONCOGENIC MUTATIONS

• Today, the International Cancer Genome Consortium, which will study the genomes of more than 25,000 cancer patients, presents its latest research results in the journal Nature. 
• The chronic lymphocytic leukemia genome project is coordinated in Spain, and the CRG researchers, Xavier Estivill and Roderic Guigó, are directing the genome structural variation analysis and RNA sequencing sections. 
• The project started less than a year ago, and samples from 50 patients have already been taken, which have led to the sequencing of five complete genomes. The sequencing of these first five genomes was carried out in its entirety at CRG.
• CRG also participates in other genome sequencing projects of various diseases including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other types of cancer.

 
Xavier Estivill and Roderic Guigó, researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), are participating in the chronic lymphocytic leukemia genome sequencing project, and are responsible for the genome structural variation analysis and RNA sequencing. The first sequencing experiments carried out as part of the Spanish project were performed at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, under the direction of these researchers and the participation of the CRG genomics unit. This unit has been working for more than three years with new generation sequencers, and is currently headed by Heinz Himmelbauer.
 
The project is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, with the participation of a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, the University of Barcelona, the University of Oviedo, the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the Spanish National Cancer Research Center, the Cancer Research Center of Salamanca, and the University of Deusto. With the creation of the new National Center for Genomic Analysis (CNAG) in Barcelona, the bulk of the sequence data will be produced at this center, while the analysis and validation of the information generated will be directed by the University of Oviedo (Carlos López-Otín), the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (Elías Campo), and the Center for Genomic Regulation (Xavier Estivill and Roderic Guigó).
 
The research teams of the Bioinformatics and Genomics program and of the Genes and Disease program of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) are leading various sequencing projects with biomedical purposes The groups led by Guigó and Estivill have already begun analyzing the sequence of thousands of genomes of patients with different diseases including cases with various types of cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. These projects will lead to advances in predictive and personalized medicine, and will be essential in the effective prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. This will be made possible thanks to the new genome sequencing technologies that CRG has pioneered, facilitating the creation of the National Center for Genome Analysis (CNAG), which will support the projects directed by these researchers from the CRG. 

Reference work: The International Cancer Genome Consortium (2010). "International network of cancer genome projects". Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature08987