A new version of ChromosomeWalk offers a gateway to an entertaining ‘genome browser’, enriched with a new selection of stories on fascinating genes – in English, French and German – as well to the PrecisionMed website for an illustrated tour of precision medicine.

How would you like to discover the world of genes, bioinformatics and biomedicine from your home through an entertaining virtual exhibition? The ChromosomeWalk.ch portal takes you on a saunter along the human genome, highlighting some of its most striking features.

“About 300 genes can now be explored in the genome browser part of ChromosomeWalk: we wanted to illustrate the sheer diversity of the biological functions of human genes, including both unexpected and funny facts and serious illnesses”, explains Marie-Claude Blatter, SIB Outreach Manager.

Would you like a few examples? Search for ‘COVID-19’, and you will be led to Chromosome 3 to discover how genes inherited from Neanderthals relate to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Find a possible reason for your dislike of coriander by looking at gene OR6A2. Or on chromosome 11, connect with your inner beast by meeting a gene involved in the regeneration of… deer antlers!

From a gene, you can now jump to corresponding stories and comic strips on the Protein Spotlight blog, take a quiz or follow the footsteps of researchers by clicking on the corresponding entry in the UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot knowledgebase.

The portal now also embeds PrecisionMed, a wealth of information and illustrations to help you better understand what precision medicine is.

“It all started as an open-air exhibition in Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Divonne between 2008 and 2010. A couple of years later, in 2013, an award-winning virtual version of this exhibition was launched. And today ChromosomeWalk is still striding the web!” says Marie-Claude Blatter.

urly.it/38-gm 

i-news-events