Before researchers can understand what makes childhood cancer different, they must first see those differences.
That is where the Genome Sequencing Facility (GSF) at the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute plays a critical role.
Cancer begins with changes inside cells. Some involve DNA. Others affect how genes are turned on or off, how RNA carries instructions, or how individual cells within the same tumor behave differently.
Finding those changes requires powerful technology—and enormous amounts of data.
The GSF helps turn biological samples into information researchers can use.
Using advanced next-generation sequencing technologies, including the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 and NextSeq 2000, the facility can examine DNA and RNA at extraordinary depth. Researchers can study entire genomes, focus on specific genes, examine gene activity, investigate epigenetic changes, and much more.
But cancer is rarely made up of identical cells.
Even within a single tumor, different cells may behave very differently. Some may grow rapidly. Some may respond to treatment. Others may survive therapy and contribute to relapse.
The GSF’s single-cell technologies allow researchers to examine thousands of individual cells rather than treating a tumor as one uniform sample. That can reveal important differences that might otherwise be hidden.
Researchers can go a step further with spatial technologies such as Visium HD and Xenium, which help scientists study gene activity while also preserving information about where cells are located within tissue.
Think of it as creating a molecular map of a tumor.
Researchers can begin asking not only what is happening, but which cells are doing it and where those cells are located.
For childhood cancer researchers, that level of detail can be especially important.
Pediatric cancers are biologically different from many adult cancers. Understanding those differences requires researchers to study cancer at increasingly precise levels—from an entire tumor, to groups of cells, down to individual cells and the molecular instructions inside them.
And the GSF does more than operate sophisticated equipment.
Its team works with investigators on experimental design, sample preparation, sequencing, and data analysis, helping researchers choose approaches that can produce meaningful answers to their scientific questions.
That makes the Genome Sequencing Facility more than a collection of machines.
It is part of the research infrastructure that allows scientists across Greehey CCRI to ask increasingly complex questions about childhood cancer—and generate the data needed to begin answering them.
A sample becomes data.
Data becomes understanding.
And understanding can reveal the next question, the next target, or the next potential path toward a better treatment.
🎗️ That is the science behind the Gold Ribbon.
During Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we’re highlighting not only the scientists studying childhood cancer, but also the specialized people, technologies and research resources that make those discoveries possible.
🔬 Learn more about the Genome Sequencing Facility at Greehey CCRI.
#ChildhoodCancerAwarenessMonth #GoldRibbon #ChildhoodCancer #PediatricCancerResearch #Genomics #GenomeSequencing #SingleCell #CancerResearch #GreeheyCCRI #UTSanAntonio