BioMed X Institute enters new collaboration with Merck

1 August 2022

German independent research institute BioMed X Institute has announced the start of its new research project ‘Extrachromosomal DNA in Cancer’ (EDC) in collaboration with the healthcare business of Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRK: DE).

The main objective of this research group is to develop an atlas of extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in human cancer tissues and thereby trace back the mechanisms of ecDNA formation and function.

Like the name suggests, extrachromosomal DNA refers to DNA sequences that are not located on chromosomes. Moreover, cancer-associated extrachromosomal DNA usually contains oncogenes and regulatory regions that can provide a selective growth advantage, such as drug resistance, to the cancer cells who possess it, while also rapidly leading to increased intratumoral genetic heterogeneity.

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