Our work in the media

The aim of this post is to collect the media work that has been done around our previous publications. One of our publications in 2014 generated widespread interest and here we recollect the most important media mentions.

Publication:

Robles-Espinoza CD, Harland M, Ramsay AJ, Aoude LG, Quesada V, Ding Z, Pooley KA, Pritchard AL, Tiffen JC, Petljak M, Palmer JM, Symmons J, Johansson P, Stark MS, Gartside MG, Snowden H, Montgomery GW, Martin NG, Liu JZ, Choi J, Makowski M, Brown KM, Dunning AM, Keane TM, López-Otín C, Gruis NA, Hayward NK, Bishop DT, Newton-Bishop JA, Adams DJ (2014). POT1 loss-of-function variants predispose to familial melanoma. Nat Genet 46(5):478-81. doi: 10.1038/ng.2947. PMID: 24686849

In this paper, we report a novel high-penetrance melanoma susceptibility gene, POT1 (which stands for protection of telomeres). We identify rare, loss-of-function variants that increase the telomere length of carriers, the potential mechanism by which these variants act. Additionally, this is the first mechanism for a “telomere-lengthening syndrome” described to date, to the best of our knowledge.

The Sanger Institute published a press release. Subsequently, some news outlets picked it up, such as the BBC, the Australian ABC and Science Daily, and was analysed in depth by the British National Health System. We were also very happy to see some news in Spanish, such as this one from RTVE, this one from Noticias de la Ciencia y Tecnología, this one from ABC Salud and this one from Diario Médico. Daniela also wrote a post for the Sanger Institute blog.

Daniela also won a best talk award for this work at the 2013 meeting of the Society for Melanoma Research and recorded a 30-minute talk on the discovery, supported by the iBiology web portal, the Lasker Foundation and the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science.