WORCESTER, Mass. – A single change to even one of the thousands of DNA codes that make up each gene in the human genome can result in severe diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy or Huntington's Disease. A similarly minor change in the DNA of a virus or bacteria can give rise to drug resistant strains that are difficult for physicians to treat with standard drug therapies. For these reasons, scientists have long sought ways to study the effects genetic mutations can have on an organism but have been hampered in these efforts by an inability to easily and efficiently produce and analyze the thousands of potential changes possible in even one small gene.
A new study by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, published in Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online on April 4, describes a novel technique to produce all potential individual mutations and using deep sequencing technology simultaneously analyze each change's impact on the cell.
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