West ramps up accusations of systemic repression in Turkmenistan

By Robert Evans

GENEVA (Reuters) - Western states on Monday ratcheted up accusations against Turkmenistan that it allows torture and crushes free speech but Asian and Islamic states came to the defense of the natural gas-rich republic in the main U.N. human rights forum.

Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov wields almost unlimited power in his Central Asian desert nation, a former Soviet republic which holds the world's fourth largest known reserves of natural gas.

At a special session of the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council, a senior Turkmen official denied allegations of relentless, systemic repression and said the government was working for democratization and development.

Islamic and Asian states backed that argument, saying Turkmenistan had boosted economic growth and improved living, health and educational standards of its 5.5 million people.

The United States told the gathering that Turkmen officials "are not held accountable for torture or other human rights violations" while journalists, ethnic and religious minorities and critics of the government were detained or intimidated.

Australia said "fundamental freedoms remain heavily curtailed" in the reclusive Central Asian republic.

Norway and Chile said Turkmen women suffered widely from domestic violence while the government stood by, and the Netherlands and Poland called on the Ashgabat government to allow in U.N. investigators on torture and other abuses.

The special session was part of the rights council's Universal Periodic Review in which every U.N. member state has its record examined - for three hours - once every four years.

The procedure has been criticized by independent rights groupings which argue that it gives no time for a proper review and allows a country's allies to shield it from full examination by showering it with plaudits.

Among countries praising Turkmenistan were North Korea, Belarus, Sri Lanka and Iran as well as fellow ex-Soviet neighbors Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - all frequently under Western fire for alleged human rights abuses.

Berdymukhamedov, who is widely referred to as "Arkadag" (The Patron) in Turkmenistan, has ruled since the death of his autocratic predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006.

Berdymukhamedov has eased controls on small-scale entrepreneurs and the Turkmen economy has grown rapidly on the back of high world energy prices.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/west-ramps-accusations-systemic-repression-turkmenistan-171745931.html

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Google Might Change Google.com and Make Using the Internet Way Better

As a fashionable internet denizen, you do not use a homepage, probably. You open a new browser window or tab, and you're met with your Chrome apps, or Safari favorites, or whatever the hell Firefox is doing now. And if you do have one, it's probably a legacy media hub like MSN, AOL or Yahoo, or a search page like Google or Bing. But what if the web found a way for a landing page to be useful again? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/2x3BDYBjvmI/google-might-change-googlecom-and-make-using-the-internet-way-better

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Israel praises Azerbaijan's stand in Iran crisis

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's president on Monday praised Azerbaijan for playing a key role in countering Iran's influence in the Middle East as the Muslim country's foreign minister visited the Jewish state for the first time.

The visit by Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov comes amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran.

Israel believes Iran is quickly approaching the capability to build a nuclear bomb and has threatened to use military force if international diplomacy and sanctions fail to curb Tehran's nuclear program. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes only.

In talks Monday, President Shimon Peres told Mammadyarov that Israel considers Azerbaijan an important ally. He cited Azerbaijan's "unique geographic location" and praised its government for taking a "clear stand" against war and terrorism.

Mammadyarov said his country, located between Russia and Iran, "is not in an easy neighborhood" and that he sees a "huge opportunity" to expand ties with Israel.

Although neither official said so, Azerbaijan could play an important role in the event of a military operation against Iranian nuclear sites, because it is next to Iran.

Israel's relations with Azerbaijan have grown since its once-strong strategic relationship with nearby Turkey, which also borders Iran, deteriorated.

The visit came as the U.S. defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, was visiting Israel to discuss the Iran situation. The U.S. has vowed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, though it has acknowledged differences with Israel over the timeframe for taking military action.

Hagel told his Israeli counterpart on Monday that the U.S. is committed to preserving and improving the Jewish state's military edge in the Middle East, and would permit Israel to buy various new weapons, including U.S. missiles and advanced radars for its strike aircraft. He said the U.S. would leave it to Israel to decide whether and when it needs to attack Iran.

Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet nation of 9 million people, has nurtured close relations with the United States and played an active role in Western-led counter-terrorist programs. That foreign policy has placed a strain on its ties with Iran, which hosts a sizable ethnic Azeri community.

Iran has accused Azerbaijan of allowing the Israeli spy agency Mossad to operate on its territory and use its proximity to Iran to target scientists working on Tehran's nuclear program.

Israel says authorities foiled Iranian-sponsored attacks against Israeli targets in Azerbaijan. Azeri officials thwarted plots to explode car bombs near the Israeli Embassy in 2008 and a year before convicted 15 people in connection with an alleged Iran-linked spy network accused of passing intelligence on Western and Israeli activities.

Israel would consider a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, citing hostile Iranian rhetoric toward the Jewish state, Iran's missile capabilities and its support for violent Middle Eastern militant groups.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-praises-azerbaijans-stand-iran-crisis-104002142.html

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Police: Bombing suspects planned more attacks

Sue Haff, right, a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston, greets a man arriving at Temple Israel, which allowed the Trinity congregation to hold Sunday service, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Boston. Trinity is within the blocked-off area near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where earlier in the week two bombs exploded. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Sue Haff, right, a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston, greets a man arriving at Temple Israel, which allowed the Trinity congregation to hold Sunday service, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Boston. Trinity is within the blocked-off area near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where earlier in the week two bombs exploded. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Members of Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston listen to a sermon at Temple Israel, which allowed the Trinity congregation hold Sunday service, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Boston. Trinity is within the blocked off area near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where earlier in the week two bombs exploded. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Annie Packard, 13, sings during Trinity Episcopal Church Sunday service at Temple Israel, which allowed the Trinity congregation hold service, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Boston. Trinity is within the blocked-off area near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where earlier in the week two bombs exploded. Packard was in the grandstands when the first bomb exploded and ran away in the direction of the second bomb, which went off 10 seconds later. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A runner wears a black ribbon in memory of the victims of Boston Marathon bombings starts the race during the London Marathon, London, Sunday, April 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Rev. Samuel Lloyd III, of Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston, leads service at Temple Israel, which allowed the Trinity congregation to hold their service, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Boston. Trinity is within the blocked-off area near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where earlier in the week two bombs exploded. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

BOSTON (AP) ? As churches paused to mourn the dead and console the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing Sunday, the city's police commissioner said the two suspects had such a large cache of weapons that they were probably planning other attacks. The surviving suspect remained hospitalized and unable to speak with a gunshot wound to the throat.

After the two brothers engaged in a gun battle with police early Friday, authorities found many unexploded homemade bombs at the scene, along with more than 250 rounds of ammunition.

Police Commissioner Ed Davis said the stockpile was "as dangerous as it gets in urban policing."

"We have reason to believe, based upon the evidence that was found at that scene ? the explosions, the explosive ordnance that was unexploded and the firepower that they had ? that they were going to attack other individuals. That's my belief at this point." Davis told CBS's "Face the Nation."

On "Fox News Sunday," he said authorities cannot be positive there are not more explosives somewhere that have not been found. But the people of Boston are safe, he insisted.

The suspects in the twin bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 180 are two ethnic Chechen brothers from southern Russia ? 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan. Their motive remained unclear.

The older brother was killed during a getaway attempt. The younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was still in serious condition Sunday after his capture Friday from a tarp-covered boat in a suburban Boston backyard. Authorities would not comment on whether he had been questioned.

Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tsarnaev's throat wound raised questions about when he will be able to talk again, if ever.

The wound "doesn't mean he can't communicate, but right now I think he's in a condition where we can't get any information from him at all," Coats told ABC's "This Week."

It was not clear whether Tsarnaev was shot by police or inflicted the wound himself.

In the final standoff with police, shots were fired from the boat, but investigators have not determined where the gunfire was aimed, Davis said.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the parents of Tamerlan Tsarnaev insisted Sunday that he came to Dagestan and Chechnya last year to visit relatives and had nothing to do with the militants operating in the volatile part of Russia. His father said he slept much of the time.

The younger Tsarnaev could be charged any day. The most serious charge available to federal prosecutors would be the use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill people, which carries a possible death sentence. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty.

Across the rattled streets of Boston, churches opened their doors to remember the dead and ease the grief of the living.

At the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in South Boston, photographs of the three people killed in the attack and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer slain Thursday were displayed on the altar, each face illuminated by a glowing white pillar candle.

"I hope we can all heal and move forward," said Kelly McKernan, who was crying as she left the service. "And obviously, the Mass today was a first step for us in that direction."

A six-block segment of Boylston Street, where the bombs were detonated, remained closed Sunday. But city officials were mapping out a plan to reopen it.

Mayor Thomas Menino said Sunday that once the scene is released by the FBI, the city will follow a five-step process, including environmental testing and a safety assessment of buildings. The exact timetable was uncertain.

Boston's historic Trinity Church could not host services Sunday because it was within the crime scene, but the congregation was invited to worship at the Temple Israel synagogue instead. The FBI allowed church officials a half-hour Saturday to go inside to gather the priests' robes, the wine and bread for Sunday's service.

Trinity's Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III offered a prayer for those who were slain "and for those who must rebuild their lives without the legs that they ran and walked on last week."

"So where is God when the terrorists do their work?" Lloyd asked. "God is there, holding us and sustaining us. God is in the pain the victims are suffering, and the healing that will go on. God is with us as we try still to build a just world, a world where there will not be terrorists doing their terrible damage."

Near the crime scene, Dan and Keri Arone were pushing their 11-week-old daughter in a stroller when they stopped along Newbury Street, a block from the bombing site, to watch investigators in white jumpsuits scour the pavement. Wearing his bright blue marathon jacket, Dan Arone said he had crossed the finish line 40 minutes before the explosions.

The Waltham, Mass., couple visited the area to leave behind pairs of their running shoes among the bouquets of flowers, hand-written signs and other gifts at a makeshift memorial on Boylston Street, near the police barriers.

"I thought maybe we'd somehow get some closure," Dan Arone said of leaving behind the sneakers. "But I don't feel any closure yet."

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was tracing the suspects' weapons to try to determine how they were obtained.

Neither of the brothers had permission to carry a gun. Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas said it was unclear whether either of them ever applied for a gun permit, and the applications are not considered public records.

But the younger brother would have been denied a permit based on his age alone. Only people 21 or older are allowed gun licenses in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, surgeons at a Cambridge hospital said the Boston transit police officer wounded in a shootout with the suspects had lost nearly all his blood, and his heart had stopped from a single gunshot wound that severed three major blood vessels in his right thigh.

Richard Donohue, 33, was in critical but stable condition. He is sedated and on a breathing machine but opened his eyes, moved his hands and feet and squeezed his wife's hand Sunday.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is asking residents to observe a moment of silence Monday at the time the first of two bombs exploded. The one-minute tribute is scheduled for 2:50 p.m., exactly a week after the attacks. It will be followed by the ringing of bells in Boston and elsewhere in Massachusetts.

In New York, thousands of runners donned "I Run for Boston" bibs during a 4-mile run in Central Park, one of a number of races held around the world in support of the victims of the marathon bombings.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of London Marathon runners offered their own tributes. The race began after a moment of silence, and many competitors wore black armbands as a sign of solidarity.

___

Associated Press writers Meghan Barr and Michael Hill in Boston contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-21-US-Boston-Marathon-Explosions/id-ed48b3ab539f43f891fda875ebcf245e

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.Bloomingdales Becomes 45th WIthdrawn New gTLD Application ...

Macy?s Inc. just withdrew its new gTLD application for .Bloomingdales with ICANN.

The application had a prioritization number of 1150 and becomes the 45th new gTLD application to be withdrawn.

The .Bloomingdales registry was going to be operated on a? closed basis.

Here is how Macy?s described registry, the new .bloomingdales gTLD will operate as a restricted registry, in which Macy?s Inc (Macy?s) can create and control domain spaces that promote the Bloomingdale?s brand identity and authenticity. In this regard, Macy?s will use .bloomingdales to provide information, services and resources for personalised marketing purposes to Bloomingdale?s consumers in a way that promotes trust, convenience and utility, with internet users assured of brand authenticity. The .bloomingdales gTLD will provide an authoritative internet space for Macy?s and, potentially, its affiliates and partners that are associated with the Bloomingdale?s brand.

Established in 1858, Macy?s is one of the premier retailers in US with its Macy?s and Bloomingdale?s brands. As of January 2011, the Macy?s brand operates about 850 department stores, outlet stores and furniture galleries operating coast-to-coast and online at macys.com. Macy?s employs over 150,000 employees across its stores across 45 States in US, Guam and Puerto Rico. Macy?s is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange and, as of end of FY2010, Macy?s had a sales revenue of USD25 billion. Macy?s embraces its customers and strives to provide an experience that transcends ordinary shopping. Macy?s believes the key to success is to integrate its stores with the internet, and mobile technology. Thus, Macy?s strives to engage its customers in stores, online and via mobile devices by investing and tailoring the necessary talent, technology and marketing to its customers? needs.

Bloomingdale?s brand was established in 1861 as a premium brand for Macy?s offering a nationwide full-line upscale department store, recognised for its originality, innovation and fashion leadership. The Bloomingdale?s brand includes 35 stores, bloomingdales.com and 7 Bloomingdales Outlet Locations. In 2010, Bloomingdale?s opened its first international location in Dubai. Bloomingdale?s has become a leading attraction for its exceptional customer amenities including an international visitor centre and for its outstanding personal shopper services that strengthen customer relationships and builds loyalty. Bloomingdale?s is consistently finding ways to differentiate its superior services and reinforce its position as an authority for upscale, contemporary fashion. In this regard, consumer trust and continuous innovation are paramount considerations in Macy?s application for .bloomingdales. These objectives will be further complemented by Macy?separate application for .macys to strengthen Macy?s online brand presence while distinguishing each brand?s identity and customer focus.

Business activities are increasingly conducted over the internet, allowing for greater levels of interaction between businesses and customers. As a result, both businesses and end users benefit from ease of interaction and a wider range of choices with lower transaction costs. However, the development in this arena in the current domain name system has exposed both businesses and consumers to increased criminal activities over the internet, including data breach, hacking and phishing. These sophisticated criminal activities cause reputational damage to businesses as internet users lose consumer confidence and trust with the businesses targeted by such criminal activities. The .bloomingdales gTLD will facilitate greater trust and assurance from internet users connecting with Bloomingdale?s online, whilst still allowing convenient and efficient interaction.

Macy?s mission and purpose of the proposed new gTLD share ICANN?s initiatives to promote public interest. Macy?s is committed to contribute towards achieving such initiatives in line with ICANN?s Affirmation of Commitments, which includes:

- consumer trust: the .bloomingdales gTLD registry will be operated in a centralised manner with a restrictive registration policy. Registration of domain names will only be available to Macy?s, at this stage, which will provide added consumer trust that the .bloomingdales domain names are trustworthy. As the .bloomingdales domain names are subject to registration standards, policies and procedures under Macy?s control, this eliminates the possibility of malicious conduct within the .bloomingdales domain space;

- competition: the proposed new gTLD is not intended to instigate competition and consumer choice at the level of registration of domain names among prospective registrants. Instead it is anticipated to contribute to ICANN?s initiatives to promote public interest through its operation focused on promoting consumer trust. Increased trust in the .bloomingdales gTLD will drive existing and new top level domain (TLD) registry operators to make improvements in mechanisms to improve consumer trust of their TLDs; and

- consumer choice: the proposed new gTLD will enable user-driven improvements and innovations assisting Macy?s marketing efforts through its ability to create new second and third level domain names on demand. These names will provide the consumers with more choices for interacting with Macy?s. As Macy?s has effective control over the registration and use of domain names in the .bloomingdales domain space, this will also contribute towards general service innovations on the internet.

Source: http://www.thedomains.com/2013/04/16/bloomingdales-becomes-45th-withdrawn-new-gtld-application/

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Sarah Dille: Dear Teachers: Let's Not Be the Demise of Our Own Profession

I am a clich?; I was born a teacher. A school photographer first snapped my photo when I was six months old, sitting on the lap of my very proud father, a kindergarten teacher who had taken me along for his school photo. I used to line my dolls up to teach them lessons from workbooks my dad's class had finished with and when my younger brother was old enough to comply and not quite old enough to protest, I sat him down in my class and tutored him from math and reading workbooks. My mother became an elementary school teacher when I was in middle school, though she had certainly been a teacher long before that. And almost every one of my aunts and uncles was a teacher or a principal. Little did my family know that they would not only mold me into a life-long learner, but into a life-long teacher as well.

See, it's true; I am that clich? -- the teacher who knew all along that the classroom is where she was meant to be. There have been, however, a few times in my life that I've tried to resist the lure of the classroom, where I've tried to deny that teaching is a part of my blood. I thought about law school, working for a law firm in college for a while. I've thought about entertaining my dreams of making a living from setting words on a page -- being a writer full time and not as an additional part of my life. But nothing else feels quite like the ground under my feet in my classroom. Nothing else fulfills me and challenges me quite like the art of teaching.

Lately I've wondered if I'd be here, standing in front of a room of students, challenging them to write and think and create if I knew what I know now. If I was making my decision in the culture of viral posts warning young people not to teach, claiming our profession no longer even exists.

I read these posts and I'm saddened. I'm saddened and disheartened and, really, when it gets down to it, I'm mad. I'm mad that other teachers are using their voices to warn off others, to claim that things are so dire it's time for all of us to jump ship. Because in my eyes, it's time to bring in more bright young people with a passion for learning, with a drive to do the real hard work that teaching requires. In my eyes all of the problems running rampant in our educational system signal a need for new blood, for new ideas, for a resurgence of the importance of what I do in room 265 every day.

On one hand, I identify with way too much of what these other teachers claim. But as someone who has taught for 13 years, I don't at all have the same feelings that Randy Turner has after working as a teacher for 14. Is it a bad time for education? Yes. Are there bad decisions being made? Yes. Is testing culture sucking the life-blood out of what a true education should be? Yes. But I say that is all the more reason that we need young people to make the hard choice to be teachers. How else will we ever guarantee that this all changes? That my children and your children won't go to school in this breaking system. We need young teachers more than ever perhaps because of all that he points out, not despite it.

In my department this year I have six teachers with fewer than five years experience. Some are brand new and others are a few years in. Each one of them has been met head on with the struggles of balancing learning and testing, figuring out how to manage students in a culture that is sometimes not supportive. They have seen first-hand the truth of what Randy Turner lays out in his argument. But they are creative and intelligent and hard-working. They challenge students to think, to create, to see the value in what they are learning. The new teachers around me are certainly not the types to fall victim to a world of pressures to conform to a new norm that none of them are comfortable with. They, instead, are the future leaders of a profession that cannot die. A profession that can only be saved by intelligent, stubborn, creative people who, at heart, are teachers. The new teachers around me? They are aware of their own power.

So my message to young people deciding whether to teach is this: Come help us take back our profession. Don't give in to the rhetoric warning you against stepping into a classroom. Because changing all of this? It starts with us. It starts with our voices and our ideas and our power. It starts with good teaching in our classrooms, with strong relationships with our students, with our stubborn cry to make this system better. It starts with teachers.

?

Follow Sarah Dille on Twitter: www.twitter.com/toddlersummer

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-dille/teachers_b_3070024.html

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Gene sequencing project finds new mutations to blame for a majority of brain tumor subtype

Gene sequencing project finds new mutations to blame for a majority of brain tumor subtype

Monday, April 15, 2013

The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital ? Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has identified mutations responsible for more than half of a subtype of childhood brain tumor that takes a high toll on patients. Researchers also found evidence the tumors are susceptible to drugs already in development.

The study focused on a family of brain tumors known as low-grade gliomas (LGGs). These slow-growing cancers are found in about 700 children annually in the U.S., making them the most common childhood tumors of the brain and spinal cord. For patients whose tumors cannot be surgically removed, the long-term outlook remains bleak due to complications from the disease and its ongoing treatment. Nationwide, surgery alone cures only about one-third of patients.

Using whole genome sequencing, researchers identified genetic alterations in two genes that occurred almost exclusively in a subtype of LGG termed diffuse LGG. This subtype cannot be cured surgically because the tumor cells invade the healthy brain. Together, the mutations accounted for 53 percent of the diffuse LGG in this study. Researchers also demonstrated that one of the mutations, which had not previously been linked to brain tumors, caused tumors when introduced into the glial brain cells of mice.

The findings appear in the April 14 advance online edition of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.

"This subtype of low-grade glioma can be a nasty chronic disease, yet prior to this study we knew almost nothing about its genetic alterations," said David Ellison, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the St. Jude Department of Pathology and the study's corresponding author. The first author is Jinghui Zhang, Ph.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Computational Biology.

The Pediatric Cancer Genome Project is using next-generation whole genome sequencing to determine the complete normal and cancer genomes of children and adolescents with some of the least understood and most difficult to treat cancers. Scientists believe that studying differences in the 3 billion chemical bases that make up the human genome will provide the scientific foundation for the next generation of cancer care.

"We were surprised to find that many of these tumors could be traced to a single genetic alteration," said co-author Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "This is a major pathway through which low-grade gliomas develop and it provides new clues to explore as we search for better treatments."

The study involved whole genome sequencing of 39 paired tumor and normal tissue samples from 38 children and adolescents with different subtypes of LGG and related tumors called low-grade glioneuronal tumors (LGGNTs). Although many cancers develop following multiple genetic abnormalities, 62 percent of the 39 tumors in this study stemmed from a single genetic alteration.

Previous studies have linked LGGs to abnormal activation of the MAPK/ERK pathway. The pathway is involved in regulating cell division and other processes that are often disrupted in cancer. Until now, however, the genetic alterations involved in driving this pathway were unknown for some types of LGG and LGGNT.

This study linked activation in the pathway to duplication of a key segment of the FGFR1 gene, which investigators discovered in brain tumors for the first time. The segment is called a tyrosine kinase domain. It functions like an on-off switch for several cell signaling pathways, including the MAPK/ERK pathway. Investigators also demonstrated that experimental drugs designed to block activity along two altered pathways worked in cells with the FGFR1 tyrosine kinase domain duplication. "The finding suggests a potential opportunity for using targeted therapies in patients whose tumors cannot be surgically removed," Ellison said.

Researchers also showed that the FGFR1 abnormality triggered an aggressive brain tumor in glial cells from mice that lacked the tumor suppressor gene Trp53.

Whole-genome sequencing found previously undiscovered rearrangements in the MYB and MYBL1 genes in diffuse LGGs. These newly identified abnormalities were also implicated in switching on the MAPK/ERK pathway.

Researchers checked an additional 100 LGGs and LGGNTs for the same FGFR1, MYB and MYBL1 mutations. Overall, MYB was altered in 25 percent of the diffuse LGGs, and 24 percent had alterations in FGFR1. Researchers also turned up numerous other mutations that occurred in just a few tumors. The affected genes included BRAF, RAF1, H3F3A, ATRX, EP300, WHSC1 and CHD2.

"The Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has provided a remarkable opportunity to look at the genomic landscape of this disease and really put the alterations responsible on the map. We can now account for the genetic errors responsible for more than 90 percent of low-grade gliomas," Ellison said. "The discovery that FGFR1 and MYB play a central role in childhood diffuse LGG also serves to distinguish the pediatric and adult forms of the disease."

###

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: http://www.stjude.org

Thanks to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127745/Gene_sequencing_project_finds_new_mutations_to_blame_for_a_majority_of_brain_tumor_subtype

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