BackgroundWith a higher throughput and lower cost in sequencing, second generation sequencing technology has immense potential for translation into clinical practice and in the realization of pharmacogenomics based patient care. The systematic analysis of whole genome sequences to assess patient to patient variability in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics responses towards drugs would be the next step in future medicine in line with the vision of personalizing medicine.MethodsGenomic DNA obtained from a 55 years old, self-declared healthy, anonymous male of Malay descent was sequenced. The subject's mother died of lung cancer and the father had a history of schizophrenia and deceased at the age of 65 years old. A systematic, intuitive computational workflow/pipeline integrating custom algorithm in tandem with large datasets of variant annotations and gene functions for genetic variations with pharmacogenomics impact was developed. A comprehensive pathway map of drug transport, metabolism and action was used as a template to map non-synonymous variations with potential functional consequences.Principal FindingsOver 3 million known variations and 100,898 novel variations in the Malay genome were identified. Further in-depth pharmacogenetics analysis revealed a total of 607 unique variants in 563 proteins, with the eventual identification of 4 drug transport genes, 2 drug metabolizing enzyme genes and 33 target genes harboring deleterious SNVs involved in pharmacological pathways, which could have a potential role in clinical settings.ConclusionsThe current study successfully unravels the potential of personal genome sequencing in understanding the functionally relevant variations with potential influence on drug transport, metabolism and differential therapeutic outcomes. These will be essential for realizing personalized medicine through the use of comprehensive computational pipeline for systematic data mining and analysis.
The education system has existed for centuries. However, despite the rapid change in our technology, lifestyle and needs in the workforce, it has failed to adapt accordingly. The current system relies heavily on industrial-age values where students are expected to follow instructions and are stripped of their agency rather than being encouraged to actively participate in their learning process. As a result, students end up lacking motivation and engagement. Persuasive design focuses on influencing human behavior to improve long-term engagement through various mechanisms. Here, we have embedded the design in the form of gamification elements into the classroom mechanic to aid in the assessment and modulation of student behavior. “ExP”, a points-based incentive system tied to all aspects of the classroom mechanics was designed to work in tandem with existing student behavior. Accurate balancing of the system effectively grants students agency and allows more clarity in their classroom interactions and stratagem. The study assesses the effectiveness of the system in improving the academic performance of Diploma-level students. A group of 21 repeating students was observed for an entire semester. A paired sample t-test using SPSS was performed to draw the results. The final exam scores indicates a significant difference in the scores before (M=42.52, SD= 3.82) and after (M=50.14, SD=11.23) the implementation the gamification system with p=0.004. It can be concluded that the incorporation of persuasive design in the form of gamification has potential to significantly improve students’ academic performance.
Here, we report the draft genome sequence and annotation of a multidrug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain PR10 (MDR-TB PR10) isolated from a patient diagnosed with tuberculosis. The size of the draft genome MDR-TB PR10 is 4.34 Mbp with 65.6% of G + C content and consists of 4637 predicted genes. The determinants were categorized by RAST into 400 subsystems with 4286 coding sequences and 50 RNAs. The whole genome shotgun project has been deposited at DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank under the accession number CP010968.
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