Re: St. Jude Conducts First Large-scale Bird Flu Genome Study

[Guest guest]

I wonder what all those parents who are desperately praying for St.

Jude to heal their children would think of all this research being

done outside of the cancer realm?

Yet again more proof of St. Jude's real reasoning for fighting the

thimerosal bill in TN.

Debi

>

> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060126192252.htm

> St. Jude Conducts First Large-scale Bird Flu Genome Study

Unique resources at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital let

researchers generate a " gold mine " of data to track evolution of bird

flu virus genes and understand how they cooperate to cause disease

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> Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have

completed the first large-scale study of bird flu virus genomes,

thereby doubling the amount of genetic information available on the

genes and proteins of these viruses. The results of the project could

lead to major insights into the bird flu virus known as H5N1, the

researchers said. H5N1 is the bird flu virus currently infecting

humans in Asia and Eastern Europe, and flu experts fear it could

mutate in a way that would allow it to cause a worldwide pandemic in

humans.

> " These studies provide the first fundamental insight into the

evolution of influenza viruses in nature--the source of all influenza

viruses that affect humans, domestic animals and birds, " said

G. Webster, Ph.D., a member of the Infectious Diseases department and

holder of the Rose Marie Chair at St. Jude. " This information

is a true gold mine, and we are inviting all of the miners to help us

unlock the secrets of influenza. "

> Webster is an internationally renowned expert on bird flu viruses

and a co-author of the report that appears in the January 27 issue of

Science.

> St. Jude was uniquely positioned to conduct these studies because

it houses Webster's large collection of bird flu viruses collected

over several decades. The hospital is also home to St. Jude's Hartwell

Center for Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, which provided the

necessary expertise and biotechnology resources; and its supercomputer

has the horsepower needed to conduct these studies.

> " Despite the major threat to human health posed by these viruses,

there was very little information available on the entire genomes of

bird flu viruses, " said Clayton Naeve, Ph.D., director of St. Jude's

Hartwell Center. " The St. Jude Influenza Virus Genome project provides

a major contribution to our understanding of H5N1 and other bird flu

viruses. Now we're in a much better position to understand what makes

these viruses tick. And that could help us learn how to control the

avian influenza viruses that threaten humans. "

> Naeve is senior author of the report in Science.

> The project produced 70 million bases of sequence information

leading to DNA sequences for 2,196 genes and 169 complete bird flu

genomes from the St. Jude collection, including representatives of all

known subtypes of the virus including H5 bird flu. Preliminary

analysis of these data and development of new analysis software has

led to the discovery of new forms of bird flu genes, how these viruses

evolve through time and the identification of genes that travel

together through evolution. The St. Jude research also made an

intriguing discovery that avian influenza viruses have a particular

molecular feature that human influenza viruses do not have, which may

cause them to be more toxic when infecting human cells.

> " The major accomplishment of this project is that it gives the

scientific community significantly more new data and analytical tools

to use in the study of these potentially very dangerous viruses, " said

C. Obenauer, Ph.D., a Bioinformatics associate research scientist

at St. Jude's Hartwell Center. " In the future, that might lead to

effective strategies for controlling outbreaks of these viruses in

birds and humans. " Obenauer is first author of the paper.

> ###

> Other authors of the paper include Jackie Denson, Perdeep K.

Mehta, Xiaoping Su, Suraj Mukatira, B. Finkelstein, Xiequn Xu,

Jinhua Wang, Jing Ma, Yiping Fan, M. Rakestraw; h Hoffmann,

Krauss, Jie Zheng and Ziwei Zhang.

> This work was primarily funded by ALSAC, the St. Jude fund-raising

arm, with additional support from the National Institutes of Health, a

Cancer Center Support grant and the Hartwell Foundation.

> St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

> St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized

for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with

cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Founded by late entertainer

Danny and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its

discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world.

No family ever pays for treatments not covered by insurance, and

families without insurance are never asked to pay. St. Jude is

financially supported by ALSAC, its fund-raising organization. For

more information, please visit www.stjude.org.

> Editor's Note: The original news release can be found here.

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> This story has been adapted from a news release issued by St.

Jude Children's Research Hospital.

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