Posts in category Sequencing

Durban Microbiome Workshop

Published by JCVI Staff on 28 April 2016 in Bioinformatics, Education and Sequencing.

As part of our continued effort to bring genomics to other communities, Alex Voorhies, Derek Harkins and Andres Gomez traveled to Durban, South Africa to lead a series of workshops on microbiome data analyses. The two days of presentations were made to students, postdocs and faculty at the Durban University of Technology, and was co-sponsored by the NIAID funded JCVI Genomic Center for Infectious Disease. On day one, the JCVI team provided an introductory lecture on microbiomes and technical considerations to plan and conduct microbiome related projects. The lecture followed up with an introduction to sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools to analyze 16S rRNA next generation sequencing data. The day one session ended up with a lecture on the differences between metagenomics and 16S rRNA sequencing and analyses pipelines and one on one advising with students and faculty on how to analyze and plan their own projects.

On day two the JCVI team provided a hands-on tutorial where students analyzed a time series of mouse microbiome data. Students learned each step of working with a 16S rRNA dataset, from processing raw reads to statistical analysis and figure generation. The morning started with a practical exercise processing 16S reads using mothur to assign taxonomic classification. In the afternoon students used the output from the mothur workshop to learn about analyzing data in R. Students explored alpha and beta diversity as well as indicator species analysis and statistical significance of their findings. The hands-on workshop concluded with various ways to display 16S microbiome data in publication quality figures.

The students were very enthusiastic and active participants in the lectures and hands on units. It is our sincere hope that the workshop helps them to expand their research and data analysis capabilities in the future.

Our hosts, Drs. Suren Singh and Nokuthula Mchunu, sent along nice messages in appreciation for the event:

Have no words to pass the amount of appreciation the student and the supervisors had for the workshop. Andres, Derek and Alex were fantastic in the delivery of the material and having time to address every question we were asking. We hope that we can have another sometime in the future and if we had choice we would pick them. Thank you again.
- Dr. Nokuthula Mchunu

Thank you for sending out a wonderful, and extremely knowledgeable team to ignite one of many workshops at DUT. It was truly a great exposure for many of my students and staff. They enjoyed the theoretical and hands on sessions alike. Let’s continue this association for many more years ahead.

- Dr. Suren Singh

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2015 Advanced Genomics, Metagenomics, and Bioinformatics Workshop Wrap-up

Published by JCVI Staff on 13 March 2015 in Bioinformatics, Education, Infectious Disease, Microbial & Environmental Genomics and Sequencing.

I was lucky enough to help set up and plan a workshop covering genomics, metagenomics, proteomics and bioinformatics at the University of the West Indies campus in St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago on February 19th and 20th. The workshop was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through the Genomic Center for Infectious Diseases cooperative agreement. UWI was a co-sponsor and a gracious host. Participants included 60 individuals from Trinidad, England, Guyana and Barbados. On-line participants were from all over the world including Gambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, USA, and the Caribbean.

file-pdf Workshop Slides (PDF - 29MB)

The team of presenters from the JCVI included Karen Nelson, Bill Nierman, Andrey Tovchigrechko, Rembert Pieper, and Shibu Yooseph. Presenters from UWI included Drs. Christine Carrington and Adesh Ramsubhag.

Karen opened the workshop with a welcome message and overview. She has been a driving force behind the growing relationship between UWI and JCVI. Bill delivered very interesting talks on the history of research on the human microbiome and currently emerging infectious diseases. Rembert handled a presentation and tutorial on proteomic analysis strategies, which was a big hit. If time was not a factor, the question and answer period could have lasted longer than his talk. Finally, Andrey and Shibu presented and gave lessons on statistics, UNIX, and bioinformatics analyses for genomics, metagenomics, and microbiome work.

Dr. Carrington’s presentation on infectious diseases in Trinidad focused on Dengue Fever and Chickungunya, and dovetailed quite nicely with Bill’s presentation on emerging infectious diseases.

Dr. Ramsubhag described the results of his work examining the bacterial diversity of the Nariva Swamp in Trinidad, which uncovered many unique bacterial strains. Perhaps the most important portion of his talk described how important this type of workshop/collaboration is for UWI. Lessons from subject matter experts are invaluable to the undergraduate, graduate and faculty members that attended the workshop as students. In addition, Dr. Ramsuhbag described how a relationship that started through a workshop has given UWI access to cutting edge technologies and data analysis strategies that would be otherwise unavailable without the collaboration with the JCVI.

The students that attended the workshop were all very enthusiastic and eager to learn. They seemingly hung on every word from the presenters, and paid very close attention during the presentations and hands on informatics sessions. A few attendees even asked us to make the lunch break shorter so that the workshop time could be lengthened…but we needed that time to break down the video equipment, haul it to another building and set it up for the afternoon classes. It was a pleasure to help make this learning experience possible for the workshop students!

The workshop was the second time that staff from the JCVI have presented at the St. Augustine Campus of UWI. Tim Stockwell held an 8 hour workshop focused on viruses in 2013. We look forward to working together in the future.

Special thanks to Tim Stayeas for handling all of the technology associated with on-line broadcasts of the meeting.

Watch all four training sessions below:

Day 1, AM Session

Day 1, PM Session

Day 2, AM Session

Day 2, PM Session

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Guest Speakers Marlo Gottfurcht Longstreet and Dean Ornish Inspire Guests at JCVI‘s “Life at the Speed of Light” Gala

Published by JCVI Staff on 23 October 2014 in Genomic Medicine, JCVI, Microbial & Environmental Genomics and Sequencing.

On October 18, J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) hosted our “Life at the Speed of Light” black tie gala featuring special guests Dean Ornish, MD, and Marlo Gottfurcht Longstreet. JCVI welcomed 200 community leaders, sponsors and supporters including Representative Scott Peters, Susan Taylor, Reena Horowitz, Linda Chester, Jack McGrory, Jessie Knight, Jr., Joye Blount, Wendy Walker, Randy Woods, Andrew and Erna Viterbi, Mary Ann Beyster, and JCVI Board Member Bill Walton and wife Lori.

Guests experienced our science first hand through various displays and had the opportunity to interact with many JCVI scientists to learn how advances in genomics are impacting our health and environment.

microbiome station

JCVI Scientists Manny Torralba and Stephanie Mounaud welcomed guests with a brief introduction to the palm microbiome by taking swabs and sharing aggregate population results midevening.

Following welcome remarks by J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., Founder & CEO of JCVI, Marlo Gottfurcht Longstreet shared her son Tanner’s battle with a Giloblastoma Brain Tumor. It is understood that the tumor developed as a result of a mutation in the TP53 tumor suppressor gene. Sadly, Tanner Jay Longstreet passed away in 2013 at the age of 11.

Marlo Gottfurcht Longstreet sharing her personal story about her son Tanner and ongoing work at the Tanner Project.

Marlo Gottfurcht Longstreet sharing her personal story about her son Tanner and ongoing work at the Tanner Project.

Personal tragedy turned mission for Marlo as she set out to do everything she could to better understand what afflicted Tanner, which gave rise to the Tanner Project at JCVI. Led by Nicholas Schork, Ph.D., the Tanner Project is what is referred to as an “N of 1” project – a single patient case study. Rather than go in for yearly checkups, the patient in the study is monitored daily so that any evidence of cancer can be detected at onset. The goal is to keep the study patient at what is referred to as stage 0. By closely monitoring the condition in this “N of 1” study, its application can be applied more broadly in personalized medicine – “N of 1 for everyone.”

Dr. Ornish discussed advances in personalized medicine and how simple behavioral changes can greatly affect patient outcomes. He addressed ideas presented in his most recent book, The Spectrum, suggesting diet and exercise are not all or nothing propositions. If today wasn’t a great food day, there is no reason tomorrow can’t be. This kind of thinking can greatly improve longevity and quality of life.

Dean Ornish speaking to gala attendees on advances in medicine.

Nobel Laureate Hamilton Smith (right) walks gala attendees through JCVI advances.

Rangers and the Re-Arrangers

The evening was rounded out with a delectable dinner, dancing, and gypsy jazz music by Seattle’s Rangers and the Re-Arrangers.

JCVI is grateful to its event sponsors – CapitalOne Bank, BioMed Realty, Synthetic Genomics, Inc., Human Longevity, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Gunderson Dettmer, ZGF, and Egon Zehnder – for their support. Thank you as well to our DNA gift bag sponsors: Way Better Snacks, GoodBelly, Kowalski Communications, La Jolla Playhouse, Lean & Green Café, and Travel Set Go.

JCVI remains committed to tackling today’s pressing medical and environmental concerns, and we continue to rely on your generosity to achieve our goals. For more information on funding needs and opportunities, please contact Katie Collins as [email protected].

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Thule, Greenland Year Two

Published by Manolito Torralba on 18 August 2014 in Genomic Medicine, JCVI, Microbial & Environmental Genomics and Sequencing.

Sequence data from the previous year allowed us to determine the overall microbial population in each site and this year we decided to focus on the Rich Lake site which seem to have representation of nearly all microbes found in the other sites. So lucky for us we only had to work on one site this year rather than six. This in itself had me excited to go back to Thule. After a five-hour flight on a military plane from BWI I finally arrived to Thule Greenland where we were greeted by the Colonel as well as other high ranking military officials at the hanger. Once I cleared the customs processing area, I arrived to the dorm where the other scientists were living. It was a little different from last year’s accommodations but nevertheless the luxuries of WI-FI, Internet and cable TV were all available. As I am anxious to get to the field and see the changes in the Rich Lake site, we were given some interesting news. That day was not a good day to travel to the site because a mother polar bear and her two cubs were spotted nearby not too long ago by military police. However, we managed to get other work done by preparing the schedule for the sampling, cultivation and other labwork.

 

The next few days consisted of preparing culture media, cultivation traps and diffusion chambers, and going out into the field (polar bear spray in hand; yes it’s a real thing!). We were extra careful in the field since there was quite a bit of fog in the area that did not seem to go anywhere and fog happens to be the same color as polar bears. The fog did however make it a bit easier to sleep since most of the sunlight was covered and when there’s 24 hours of daylight from mid-April until September, a little fog can still serve a purpose.

Rich Lake Site

Rich Lake Site

Greenland

Greenland

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JCVI Hosts South African Scientists to Share Microbiome Research Techniques

Published by JCVI Staff on 14 April 2014 in Bioinformatics, Education, Genomic Medicine, Infectious Disease and Sequencing.

Two scientists from the University of Cape Town, South Africa have joined Dr. Bill Nierman’s lab for the next month as part of NIH’s Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Initiative, a training program designed to build out technical biological skills in the African research community. This training relates specifically to developing techniques around the area of microbiome analysis, a relatively new field in the biological sciences.

Microbiome analysis for the collaborative study is looking at entire community of microorganisms in the respiratory tract of South African infants to better understand how the microbiome is associated with infant pneumonia and wheezing episodes. The expectation is that the organisms that reside in the infant respiratory tract will provide protection from or a predisposition to the pneumonia or wheezing episodes.

 

The Nierman Group

The Nierman group left to right Sarah Lucas, Bill Nierman, Shantelle Claassen, Mamadou Kaba and Stephanie Mounaud (unpictured Jyoti Shanker and Lilliana Losada) welcomes visiting scientists Ms. Classeen and Dr. Kaba from University of Cape Town for a month long training in microbiome sequencing and analysis.

Mamado Kaba, MD, PhD and colleague Shantelle Claassen from the University of Cape Town will be working closely under the guidance of JCVI’s Stephanie Mounaud who is functioning as the project manager and coordinating the laboratory components of a similar project at JCVI studying the microbiomes of inafnts in the Philippines and also in South Africa. These studies are sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The training will focus initially on preparing samples for DNA sequencing on a modern DNA sequencing platform, the Illumina MiSeq instrument. Once the sequence reads are off the sequencer, the instructional focus will shift to analysis of the reads by means of an informatics pipeline that develop phylogenies, or family trees, of the microbes that are obtained from the infant respiratory tract so that the abundance and relatedness of the microbes can be established. The bioinformatics training will be provided by Jyoti Shankar, the statistical analyst working on the Gates Foundation Project.

Mamadou Kaba is a Wellcome Trust Fellow working in the Division of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town. Mamadou’s research interests include the molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases and the study of human microbiome in healthy and disease conditions. He has contributed in establishing a new research group conducting studies on how the composition of the upper respiratory tract, gastrointestinal, and the house dust microbial communities influences the development of respiratory diseases.

Prior to joining the University of Cape Town, Mamadou worked as Research Associate at the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology, Timone University Hospital, Marseille, France, where he studied the epidemiological characteristics of infection with hepatitis E virus in South-eastern France.

Shantelle Claassen is pursuing a Masters degree in the Division of Medical Microbiology at the University of Cape Town. She has completed a BSc (Med) Honours degree in Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Cape Town, during which she examined the relative efficacy of extracting bacterial genomic DNA from human faecal samples using five commercial DNA extraction kits. The DNA extraction kits were evaluated based on their ability to efficiently lyse bacterial cells, cause minimal DNA shearing, produce reproducible results and ensure broad-range representation of bacterial diversity.

Mamadou and Shantelle are currently involved in an additional prospective, longitudinal study of which the primary objective is to investigate the association between fecal bacterial communities and recurrent wheezing during the first two years of life.

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The 2014 Summer Internship Application is Open and Announcing the Genomics Scholar Program

Published by Lisa McDonald on 19 December 2013 in Education, Genomic Medicine, Infectious Disease, JCVI, Microbial & Environmental Genomics, Plant Genomics, Sequencing, Synthetic Biology & Bioenergy and Uncategorized.

The 2014 Summer Internship Application is now open. Last summer, we hosted 49 interns from a pool of 424 applicants. They presented their research in the First Annual Summer Internship Poster Sessions held in San Diego and Rockville. The posters were judged by a team of volunteer JCVI scientists and the poster sessions were open to all employees, interns and their guests to share what great work they all participated in this summer.

 

 

2013 Intern Poster Session

2013 Intern Poster Session

We are also excited to announce the new Genomics Scholar Program beginning this summer and also accepting applications. The Genomic Scholar Program (GSP) is a targeted research experience program to community college students in Rockville. Our program incorporates multiple avenues of support for students through the research experience with the Principal Investigators as mentors, and supplemental professional development provided by the JCVI. Additionally, selected students will have the opportunity to participate in undergraduate research conferences.

The GSP is supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award number R25DK098111.

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Sampling: US to the Azores

Published by Jeff Hoffman on 4 September 2013 in Microbial & Environmental Genomics and Sequencing.

I’m off again on an ocean sampling voyage but this time instead of being onboard the JCVI’s Sorcerer II, I am onboard the R/V Endeavor as part of a multi-institution, international scientific sampling team that is headed from the US to the Azores.

On Thursday August 22 we left Morehead City, North Carolina for Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel Island in the Azores. The research vessel will take multiple samples along the 23 day transect. Here is a rundown of the teams and the science we are conducting.

Crew leaving Morehead City, NC.

Crew leaving Morehead City, NC. From the left: Sarah Fawcett, Amandine Sabadel, Malcolm Woodward, and Bess Ward.

R/V Endeavor

R/V Endeavor

I will be filtering large volumes of seawater on 293mm filters for DNA sequencing, as well as smaller volumes onto smaller Sterivex filters for RNA sequencing and associated studies of gene expression within various microbial communities. This research expedition is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation program in Dimensions of Biodiversity to Bess Ward at Princeton University and Andrew Allen at JCVI. The goal of our JCVI group is to extend findings from the Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling program, which documented massive genomic diversity and unusual physiological and biochemical capabilities within and between many lineages of marine microorganism. With samples collected on this research cruise, we will have the opportunity to document large-scale patterns in gene expression, and generate key hypotheses related to the most biochemically-active microbes across a major section of the upper 1000m of the North Atlantic. Data obtained from this study will be combined with similar data we collected last February and August on cruises out of Bermuda to the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS) stations in the in the sub-tropical Atlantic.

North Atlantic Transect, north of Sorcerer II transect to the Azores in 2009.

North Atlantic Transect, north of Sorcerer II transect to the Azores in 2009.

The Princeton team headed up by Bess Ward includes Sarah Fawcett, Nicolas Van Oostende, Jess Lueders-Dumont, Dario Marconi, and Keiran Swart. Their primary research involves using flow cytometry to physically capture, size fractionate and identify microbes living in the sunlit layer of the ocean. These microbes are directly responsible for assimilation of dissolved nitrate, which accumulates in the dark interior of the ocean. Specific identification of these microbes is an important research goal for microbial oceanography because the regulation and magnitude of global oceanic CO2 assimilation is driven explicitly by nitrate assimilation by photosynthetic microbes. Such microorganisms also produce a large fraction of the oxygen in the atmosphere. The Princeton group will perform nitrification experiments and measure levels of dissolved nitrate, ammonia and carbon by using stable and natural isotope tracers. The team will investigate the origins of dissolved inorganic nitrogen by measuring the natural abundance of the nitrogen isotopes. Net tows will also be performed to collect the “bigger” planktonic organisms, such as zooplankton, within the ocean food chain.

Real time nutrient data down to nanomolar levels will be determined by Malcolm Woodward of Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and Amandine Sabadel from the University of Otago in New Zealand.

As we motor to our first station, which we should reach on Monday September 2nd, we stop every morning at 5 am to perform a CTD cast to 1000 meters. Based on biological and physical features, observable in real time via CTD sensors cabled to the shipboard computer,12 bottles, each containing 30 liters of sea water, are sealed at varied depths and the 360 liters is brought to the boats deck. Once the CTD is on the deck, the different scientists scurry to gather their allocated amount of water from the CTD rosette and hurry back to their labs to do the appropriate work.

CTD Controls

CTD Controls

CTD Controls

CTD Controls

CTD1

CTD1

As of Wednesday August 28, 2013, we have done 7 transect CTD casts, all but one to 1000 meters. Today we sampled on the Grand Banks and the water column depth was only 57 meters. For every cast I have collected RNA samples at 1000 meters, 250 meters, within the Deep Chlorophyll Max (DCM) (if no DCM is apparent, then just below the Chlorophyll max), a sample from within the Chlorophyll max and in the mixed layer (normally at 20 meters).

The weather has been great except for one 24 hour period when the swells grew to about 7 feet and the boat was really rolling back and forth. The crew is great, the food is awesome, good thing they have a small gym or I don’t think most of us would fit in our clothes after a few weeks out here! The scientists are working well as a team and this should be a very exciting and beneficial science expedition.

CTD Profile

CTD Profile

Dry Lab

Dry Lab

 

Once we get to the our first station we will stay there for two days………….it will be a very intense two days, then a day motor to the second station followed by another crazy two days of sampling………….more on that next blog!

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Thule, Greenland - Day One

Published by Manolito Torralba on 25 July 2013 in Education, Genomic Medicine, JCVI, Microbial & Environmental Genomics and Sequencing.

Arrived at Thule, Greenland after a 5 hr flight from Copenhagen. It was pretty interesting seeing a long line of people all getting on a flight that was headed to a part of the world that usually has less than 600 people there at any given time. Arrival was pretty straightforward, no jetway, no customs, no LCD screens telling you where to pick up your bag. Just a few military personnel checking your documents to ensure that you have the approval from the Danish government and USAF to be on base. First impression getting off the plane…it’s cold. Not as cold as I expected it to be but it was just 90 degrees F when I left home a few days ago. Today’s high was 39 degrees F. Standing in the sun it’s not so bad but when the wind starts blowing it turns into a recipe for chapped lips and windburn. Oh and did I mention the massive mosquitos here? Not much wildlife in this part of the world but the mosquitos outnumbers the vertebrates probably a million to one. They are also VERY aggressive; they even swarmed the trucks while we were driving around the base. We were shown our living quarters, which were very nice, kind of reminded me of living in the dorms during undergrad. There are individual rooms and a shared bathroom on each floor. We toured the various sites that our collaborator Slava Epstein already pointed out as good sampling sites that vary in vegetation and proximity to water. The land here is quite desolate, not much green, mostly moss and small shrubs growing. Traditional trees are nonexistent but “ground trees” are actually common. They are trees that grow outward on the grass and not upward. The rest resembles pictures taken by the mars rover. As the day goes by I noticed the sun was circling and I came to the realization that the typical artic summer was happening right in front of me. The sun literally circles and will not go down until around September. It was quite odd, getting in bed at midnight and seeing the sun still in the sky. Tomorrow will be more interesting since we will be going further away from base to sample additional areas.

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Thule, Greenland - Day Three

Published by Manolito Torralba on 25 July 2013 in Education, Genomic Medicine, JCVI, Microbial & Environmental Genomics, Sequencing and Uncategorized.

Day three started with me missing breakfast. It seems that folks around here only eat breakfast between 5am and 8am. Today was a very rough day for sampling. About an hour drive to the area near the site, about a three-mile hike to one spot another half-mile hike to another spot followed by the three and a half mile hike back to the truck. We sampled “rich” soil and “rich” soil from a lake. These two sites were sampled and categorized as “rich” due to the abundance of vegetation around and near the sites. The area surrounding Thule is very desolate so I can imagine the plants have a hard enough time growing. It would be very interesting to see what microbes are present in these two sites to allow such vegetation to grow; even more interesting to see how water affects the microbial population. Samples were frozen once we got back to the on site lab. A small portion was saturated with AllProtect to ensure preservation of RNA for transcriptomics analysis.

DSCF0619

DSCF0622

 

The day ended with a lecture from another NSF grant recipient to install a telescope on the Greenlandic ice cap. It was an interesting idea to coordinate radio imaging from other telescopes around the world to look at quantum singularities that were very far away. After speaking to some of the other scientists here I found out that our group, which includes myself and our collaborators Slava Epstein and Dawoon Jung, were the ONLY Microbiologists on the base. Everyone else was either a Geologist, Environmental Scientist, Astronomer, or Meteorologist. It was great to hear about everyone else’s projects.

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A Look Back at 2010 at the JCVI…

Published by Laura Sheahan on 3 January 2011 in Bioinformatics, Education, Genomic Medicine, Infectious Disease, Microbial & Environmental Genomics, Plant Genomics, Policy Center, Sequencing and Synthetic Biology & Bioenergy.

As the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) soars into its 19th year, we reflect on the past year of highlights and accomplishments to mark the close 2010 and look forward to more significant scientific advances in 2011.

JCVI Top 10 of 2010 …

1. First Synthetic Cell: Fifteen years in the making, 2010 brought to bear with huge anticipation the successful construction of the first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell. The work was published in Science in May. The synthetic cell called Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 is the proof of principle that genomes can be designed in the computer, chemically made in the laboratory and transplanted into a recipient cell to produce a new self-replicating cell controlled only by an artificial genome. Although the first synthetic cell was not designed to produce a specific bioproduct, the team has shown that this can be done and the potential benefits are numerous. The research team, lead by JCVI President Craig Venter, Hamilton Smith, Clyde Hutchison, and Daniel Gibson, envision a future where the rapid design and production of biological products using synthetic biology techniques will be used to produce clean fuels, medicines, and other bioproducts. Throughout the course of this work, the JCVI Policy group has extensively engaged in outside review of the ethical and societal implications of this work, including advising the new Presidential Commission on Bioethics on their recommendations for oversight.

M. mycoides JCVI-syn1

M. mycoides JCVI-syn1

2. Synthetic Vaccines: Following on the heels of the announcement of the first synthetic cell, the company Synthetic Genomics Inc. and JCVI announced in October the formation of a new company, Synthetic Genomics Vaccines Inc. (SGVI). The privately held company is focused on developing next generation vaccines that can be rapidly produced and tested, which is especially important for outbreaks of new infectious diseases. SGVI also announced a three-year collaboration with Novartis to apply synthetic genomics technologies to accelerate the production of the influenza (flu) seed strains required for vaccine manufacturing. The seed strain is the starter culture of a virus, and is the base from which larger quantities of the vaccine virus can be grown. Under this collaboration, Novartis and SGVI will work to develop a “bank” of synthetically constructed seed viruses ready to go into production as soon as WHO makes recommendations on the flu strains. The technology could reduce vaccine production time by up to two months, which is particularly critical in the event of a pandemic.

3. Hydra Genome – one of the animal kingdom’s earliest common ancestors: JCVI scientists along with more than 70 other researchers from around the world, have sequenced and analyzed the genome of Hydra magnipapillata, a fresh water member of the cnidaria- stinging animals that include jellyfish, sea anemones and corals. The research, published in the March 14 edition of Nature, was co-led by Ewen F. Kirkness, JCVI, Jarrod A. Chapman, Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, and Oleg Simakov, University of California, Berkeley. This is the second sequenced cnidarian genome, following that of a sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, in 2007. The ancestors of these two species diverged more than 500 million years ago, and comparison of their genomes has revealed common features of the earliest animals that gave rise to the diversity of animals on Earth today. The team found clear evidence for conserved genome structure between the Hydra and other animals, like humans. Unexpectedly, the sequencing also revealed a novel bacterium that lives in close association with the Hydra.

4. Uncovering the Human Microbiome: Microbes are living within and on the human body and this collective community is called the human microbiome. JCVI Scientists, as one component of the large scale NIH Roadmap Human Microbiome Project, and along with colleagues at three other genome centers sequenced the genomes of ~180 microbes from the human body, published in the May 21 edition of Science. At the JCVI we anticipate sequencing an additional 400 species over the next few months. Colleagues at the JCVI are also using single cell approaches to isolate new strains that have not been cultured – isolates whose genomes will also be completely sequenced. The role these microbes play in human health and disease is still relatively unknown and these approaches are allowing us to gain a greater understanding of these enigmatic species.

5. Body Louse Genome: A global research team led by Ewen Kirkness and colleagues from JCVI published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June describing the sequencing and analysis of the human body louse, Pediculus humanus humanus, a human parasite responsible for the transmission of bacteria that cause epidemic typhus, relapsing fever and trench fever. Detailed analysis of the genome was then conducted by a large international group of 71 scientists, coordinated by Barry Pittendrigh, University of Illinois, and Professor Evgeny Zdobnov, University of Geneva Medical School. Comparative studies of the body louse genome with other species revealed features that will enhance our understanding of the relationships between disease-vector insects, the pathogens they transmit, and the human hosts. In addition to the targeted louse genome, the project unexpectedly yielded the complete genome sequence of a bacterial species, Riesia, that lives in close association with lice, and which is essential for survival of the insects. The researchers believe that the genome will be a valuable reference for evolutionary studies of insect species, especially in the areas related to insect growth and development.

6. Castor Bean Genome Sequencing: A research team co-led by Agnes P. Chan and colleagues from JCVI and Jonathan Crabtree and others at the Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, published the sequence and analysis of the castor bean (Ricinus communis) genome in Nature Biotechnology in August. Because of the potential use of castor bean as a biofuel and its production of the potent toxin ricin, the team focused efforts on analysis of genes related to oil and ricin production. The analyses could be important for comparative studies with other oilseed crops, and could also allow for genetic engineering of castor bean to produce oil without ricin. Identifying and understanding the ricin–producing gene family in castor bean will be important in preventing and dealing with potential bioterrorism events. Genomics enables enhanced diagnostic and forensic methods for the detection of ricin and precise identification of strains and geographical origins. As a next step, the group suggests further comparative genomic studies with the close relative cassava, a major crop in the developing world, to further elucidate their disease resistance aspects.

7. Science Education: JCVI was an Official Partner of the inaugural USA Science and Engineering Festival held on the National Mall in Washington, DC in October. The Festival, which was the country’s first national science festival, included over 500 of the country’s leading science and engineering organizations with the aim to reignite the interest of our nation’s youth in the sciences. The JCVI ‘Discover Genomes’ Bus was showcased during a two-day expo and some of the research being done at JCVI was presented to around 1700 visitors by our scientists and staff.

There were lines all day!

8. Viral Genomics– In 2010 the JCVI has published over 1600 influenza genomes and over 75% of all published flu genomes to date have been sequenced by the JCVI, totaling over 6000 genomes. This year the diversity of viral genomes we have sequenced has significantly expanded under the NIH Genomic Sequencing Center for Infectious Diseases contract. Some of the projects include viruses causing diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, encephalitis, SARS, and the common cold, just to name a few. The viral group has annotated and published 79 Rotavirus (stomach flu) and 33 Coronavirus genomes (includes SARS and common cold) this year and many more will be published in 2011. The pace of sequencing and finishing genomes has also increased this year as a result of adoption of nextgen platforms (e.g. Illumina/454 and Illumina/Solexa) and the development of more efficient methodologies to increase productivity while reducing costs.

9. Marine Microbial Genome Sequencing Project: JCVI scientists have continued their quest to isolate and sequencing microbes living in global ocean waters to discover new genes and enzymes, and to help understand the role microbes play in the ocean ecosystem. Shibu Yooseph, Kenneth Nealson and colleagues at JCVI published an analysis of 137 known marine microbial genomes living in the global ocean surface in Nature in November. These genomes were compared to metagenomic samples of ocean waters of 10.97 million sequences of JCVI’s Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling (GOS) metagenomic data and thousands of 16S rRNA sequences. The marine genomes were collected as part of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation-funded Marine Microbial Genome Sequencing Project, a project coordinated by JCVI that has a primary goal of obtaining whole genome sequences of ecologically important microbes from a variety of diverse, global marine environments. The work provides a good example of combining metagenomic data with sequenced genomes data to study microbial communities and to generate testable hypotheses in microbial ecology.

10. Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: On December 17th 2010 Sorcerer II arrived in Florida after spending the last two years with her crew collecting samples in The Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Seas. Funded generously by the Beyster Family Foundation Fund, The San Diego Foundation, and Life Technologies Foundation, Sorcerer II has sailed ~28,000 nautical miles since departing San Diego in March 2009. During this time 212 samples were collected and over 5,100 liters of sea water was filtered and sent to JCVI for analysis of the microbial life contained within these samples. The JCVI established strong collaborations with scientists in all 16 countries in which samples were collected, which will lead to joint publications and future collaborative studies in the new year. Read more.

Sunrise in the Ligurian Sea

Looking Forward to 2011…

Ten-year anniversary of the Human Genome Project: To commemorate the anniversary of the publications of the first human genome sequences in 2001, JCVI and Nature are hosting a conference and celebration in February 2011 titled - Human Genomics: The Next 10 Years. The conference will look forward to the promises of human genomics for the next 10 years, with sessions on medical advances related to genomics; the technological and ethical challenges of human genomics; personalized and familial genomics; the human microbiome project; variation in the human genome; and making sense of the genetic code. This conference will be a great way to jump into the new year and inspire the grandiose ideas and achievements that genomic scientists will accomplish over the years to come.

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