『Behind the Genes』のカバーアート

Behind the Genes

Behind the Genes

著者： Genomics England
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At Genomics England, our vision is a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare.

From the latest research to the lived experiences of those affected by rare conditions and cancer, Behind the Genes brings you closer to the people behind the science.

Each month, we release a deep-dive episode, alongside our Genomics 101 series - short explainers designed to make complex terms in genetics and genomics easier to understand.

Copyright 2021 All rights reserved. 生物科学 社会科学 科学
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  • What if a vaccine could help treat cancer?

    What if a vaccine could help treat cancer?
    2026/08/26
    In this episode of Behind the Genes, we explore how personalised cancer vaccines are being developed, and how genomics and AI could help make these treatments more precise. Our host, Florence Cornish is joined by: Dr Victoria Goss, Associate Professor of Early Diagnosis and Translational Research at Southampton Clinical Trials Unit and head of the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit Cancer Vaccine Launchpad team Professor Lennard Lee, Associate professor at the University of Oxford, Consultant Medical Oncologist, NHS Ali Richards, a participant who took part in a cancer vaccine clinical trial Together they discuss how cancer vaccines train the immune system to recognise cancer, how genomic information can help identify the unique features of an individual’s tumour, and how AI could help researchers analyse genomic data and accelerate the development of new cancer vaccines. “The reason I said yes was because my treatment really was punishing. It was so many side effects to it. The cancer never made me feel sick, but the treatment made me really sick. So I said yes because I just wanted to help other people not have to go through what I went through.” Transcript [00:00:00] Florence: What if a vaccine could help treat cancer? Hello and welcome to Behind the Genes, the podcast that brings you the stories, research, and innovations shaping the future of genomic healthcare. Today, we're going to be talking about cancer vaccines, how they're being developed with the help of AI, what role genomics has to play, and what it could mean for patients. [00:00:23] Florence: I'm Florence Cornish, and joining me today we have Dr Victoria Goss, who leads cancer vaccine research at Southampton Clinical Trials Unit; we have Professor Lennard Lee, who is a medical oncologist and Associate Professor at the University of Oxford; and Ali Richards, who took part in the Southampton Cancer Vaccine Programme. [00:00:45] Florence: I think before we get into cancer vaccines specifically, it might be good to start with the basics. So vaccines are something most of us have heard of and probably experienced as well, but we don't always necessarily understand how they work. So Lennard, can I come to you to explain what a vaccine actually is, how it works with our immune system, maybe at the most basic level for those who might not have a scientific background? [00:01:19] Lennard: Thanks, Florence. What's a vaccine? Very, very simply, something that protects your body from disease. We've had a few when we were younger, like which protects you against meningitis or hepatitis or different types of infections that can affect children. [00:01:36] Lennard: And it really does show that your immune system is really powerful. Every day, it looks around trying to work out what's there which shouldn't be there and takes care of it. And ideally, your immune system just works in the background without causing any problems. And so what a vaccine does is it really helps the body understand something that's abnormal. [00:01:55] Lennard: And the vision here is that you can use this technology to hopefully patrol against cancer, because half the people out there will never get cancer. They are the maybe the lucky ones or maybe the ones with a good immune response. And so a vaccine is basically giving your immune system a wanted poster: [00:02:11] Lennard: "This is what threat looks like. This is what you need to control". [00:02:16] Florence: And I think you mentioned some great examples there. There are lots of common examples of vaccines people might have heard of. I think maybe the flu vaccine is probably a common one that people are thinking about in the wintertime. I think another one is maybe the HPV vaccine. [00:02:29] Florence: Lennard, could you explain a bit more to our listeners about the HPV vaccine? What it is, how it works? I think people often think of it as a type of cancer vaccine, but actually it's targeting a virus. Is that right? [00:02:41] Lennard: Yeah, that's correct. So this is now a vaccine which has been rolled out across the NHS, and it's actually worked really well to get rid of a few cancer types, which is incredible. [00:02:51] Lennard: And why is that important? Well, cancer can be caused by many, many different things. Sometimes it's because you've done things like smoking or weight plays a role or just bad luck or the genes that you've inherited. But some cancer types are caused by viruses. And so many people nowadays are getting the HPV vaccine to stop cancer types like cervical cancer, hopefully head and neck cancer, and many of the rarer cancer types. [00:03:21] Lennard: And so again, what you're doing here is you're taking the immune response, telling it the body shouldn't get this virus and hopefully prevent some of the bad consequence of getting this viral infection, like cancers. [00:03:33] Florence: Thank you. That's really helpful to understand. So we've talked...
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    37 分
  • What are cancer vaccines?

    What are cancer vaccines?
    2026/08/12
    In this explainer episode, we’ve asked Dr Antonio D'Alessio, Medical Oncologist at Guys and St Thomas Foundation Trust, to explain cancer vaccines and how they work. You can also find a series of short videos explaining some of the common terms you might encounter about genomics on our YouTube channel. If you’ve got any questions, or have any other topics you’d like us to explain, let us know on podcast@genomicsengland.co.uk. You can download the transcript or read it below. Florence: What are cancer vaccines and how do they work? My name is Florence Cornish, and today I'm joined by Antonio D’Alessio, who is a medical oncologist ay Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation Trust and King's College. And he's going to be telling us much more about the topic. So Antonio, before we get into cancer vaccines, I wanted to first ask you about cancer. I know it's a pretty broad term, and it refers to the uncontrolled growth of cells in the body, but maybe it would be helpful for you to explain a little bit more about what cancer actually is, like what that term means, especially for listeners out there who might not have that scientific background. Antonio: Yeah, of course. And first of all, thanks for inviting me today. Well, that's a big question. The point is that we know that in our bodies there are billions of cells, and all of these cells, they divide, they do their job, and they know when to die on schedule. The point is that sometimes there are cells that ignore this instruction and just keep reproducing and growing, and this is when cancer grows. Our bodies have systems, which is the immune system, to recognize when this happens so that the immune system can recognize the cancer cells that are growing too much. They attack them and destroy them. But unfortunately, sometimes cancer is quite clever, they manage to escape from the immune system and starts growing without control, and that's when cancer starts. Florence: And so, what are the standard treatments that we use for cancer at the moment? Antonio: Well, broadly speaking, I would say that we have three types of cancer treatments. One, it's surgery, where we just cut the cancer out. Then we have radiotherapy, where we basically induce targeted damage to the cancer. And then we have a very broad umbrella term that is systemic therapy. Systemic therapies can be chemotherapy, can be targeted therapies, and that can be immunotherapy. In particular, immunotherapy is quite exciting because over the past 20 years, we have learned how to boost the immune system of patients, so that's the white blood cells, the immune system of patients that can recognize cancer cells and attack them. Sort of imagine that cancers hide behind an invisibility cloak, and immunotherapy helps unveil the cancer so that the immune system can recognize the cancer again and attack it. And vaccines and cancer vaccines are part of this family of immunotherapy drugs. Florence: Yeah so speaking about that, I think lots of listeners might have heard of the term cancer vaccine before, obviously, its the topic of this episode. And I think the term cancer vaccine sounds very interesting and promising, but also maybe a little bit intimidating as well. So maybe you could tell me more about what a cancer vaccine is kind of at the most basic level. Antonio: Well, cancer vaccine is a vaccine, and we have received so many vaccines in our lives that our body basically has learnt already how to process a vaccine. Imagine a vaccine as a wanted poster. So, we give the body the instructions to recognise something that shouldn't be there, and the immune system knows how to do it. So, the job of the immune system is to recognize strangers in our bodies - that can be microbes, bacteria, viruses, and also cancers. And sometimes with a vaccine, we sort of help the immune system to do its job a bit better. And with vaccines, we provide the instructions to recognize these strangers in our body and help the immune system to, to get rid of them. And in particular, for cancer vaccines, we have different types of cancer vaccines. There's a family of cancer vaccines that are called preventative, where we can try to give a vaccine even before the cancer develops to reduce the risk that the cancer develops. And, this is more early in the development. While we have, another family of cancer vaccine, which are mostly mRNA cancer vaccines that are called therapeutic. So these are cancer vaccines that are given to patients who already have cancer, maybe who had the surgery for their cancers, so that the aim of the cancer vaccine is to boost immune system and reduce the chances that the cancer comes back after surgery, or, help other types of immunotherapy work better together with vaccine against the cancer. Florence: So, I think for me at Genomics England, the mRNA cancer vaccines are probably most relevant to the work that we do here as an organization. Could you explain a little bit more about how those ones work...
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    8 分
  • What happens after a new rare genetic condition is discovered?

    What happens after a new rare genetic condition is discovered?
    2026/07/29
    Two years after researchers identified ReNU syndrome, where are we now? In 2024, two independent research teams identified the genetic cause of ReNU syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental condition affecting thousands of people worldwide. The discovery marked the beginning of a new chapter for families searching for answers and opened up exciting new avenues for research. In this episode, host Sharon Jones revisits the story to explore what has happened since that breakthrough. She is joined by: Professor Nicky Whiffin, Associate Professor and Wellcome Career Development Fellow at Big Data Institute and Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford Christina Cox, Co-founder of ReNU Syndrome UK and parent of a child with ReNU syndrome Dr Ana Lisa Tavares, Clinical Lead for Rare Disease at Genomics England Together, they discuss how researchers around the world have built on the original discovery to deepen our understanding of ReNU syndrome, why studying the non-coding regions of our DNA is revealing previously unknown rare conditions, and how collaboration between researchers, clinicians and families is accelerating progress. They also explore how the growing ReNU community is supporting newly diagnosed families and what the future could hold for new treatments. Links: Previous episode detailing the discovery of ReNU Syndrome ReNU Syndrome UK's website Original research paper from Nicky's team in Oxford Original research paper from the team based in New York “It's been only two years since our paper came out about this, and in that time, there are now patient family groups that have been set up all around the world. There is the one in the UK led by Christina and the others. There's the one in the US that's led by a group of four women, and there are ones in France, Spain, like, literally all around the world. And all of these groups are also somewhat coordinated. The leads of these groups meet with each other. They've organised meetups. I've been to ones in the US, the UK, and in France. So the fact that they can mobilise all of that and create such a community so quickly is absolutely incredible.” You can download the transcript, or read it below. [00:00:00] Sharon: In 2024, two independent research teams identified a genetic cause of a rare neurodevelopmental condition affecting thousands of people around the world. Since then, that initial groundbreaking discovery has grown into something much bigger, bringing together families, researchers, and clinicians, and building a clearer picture of what we now know as ReNU syndrome. [00:00:26] Sharon: Welcome to Behind the Genes, the podcast that covers everything from cutting-edge research to real-life stories in genomic healthcare. I'm Sharon Jones, and in today's episode, we're looking at what's happened since that discovery, what researchers are continuing to learn, and what the future could hold for people living with  ReNU Syndrome and their families. [00:00:46] Sharon: To help us understand more, I'm joined by Professor Nicky Whiffin, Christina Cox, and Dr. Ana Lisa Tavares. So, two papers were published around the same time for this condition. To start us off, Nicky, you worked on one of these papers. Could you explain how this journey first began? [00:01:05] Nicky: Yeah, so this was two years ago now, back in early 2024, where two research teams, so us based in Oxford and a, a group based in New York, were both looking at the data within the National Genomics Research Library, and we both kind of somewhat simultaneously found that there was variance in this very, very small gene, it's called RNU4-2, were found in individuals with previously undiagnosed neurodevelopmental disorders. [00:01:39] Nicky: And this was very, very striking because we initially actually identified the same single DNA change or mutation in 40 or so different individuals within the National Genomics Research Library, and we normally expect to see a whole host of different variants. We don't expect to see the same one. [00:01:59] Nicky: So this was a really, really surprising finding. And it was through a collaboration, large scale collaboration across the world where we started contacting our other collaborators who have similar collections of patients who have been genome sequenced to ask if they had any individuals with DNA changes in this gene. [00:02:17] Nicky: And we found some in the US, some in, in Australia, some in France and Germany. So very, very quickly built up this, this complete picture of variants in this gene, causing this rare neurodevelopmental disorder [00:02:35] Sharon: of people finding it at the same time, what, what did that feel like? [00:02:39] Sharon: Like, give us a ense of, like, that compelling, "We think we found something." What was that like? [00:02:46] Nicky: I didn't believe it initially. You're always told when you're a scientist that if it looks too good to be true, it's, it's not true, ...
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    31 分
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