Colm A. Ryan

1 month ago | biorxiv.org | Hamda B Ajmal |Sutanu Nandi |Narod Kebabci |Colm A. Ryan

AbstractSynthetic lethality (SL) is an extreme form of negative genetic interaction, where simultaneous disruption of two non-essential genes causes cell death. SL can be exploited to develop cancer therapies that target tumour cells with specific mutations, potentially limiting toxicity. Pooled combinatorial CRISPR screens, where two genes are simultaneously perturbed and the resulting impacts on fitness estimated, are now widely used for the identification of SL targets in cancer.

1 month ago | medium.com | Colm A. Ryan

Colm Ryan·Follow2 min read·--I just read an article by Joe Humphreys in the Irish Times that got me thinking. He was talking about the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule and how it wasn’t some sort of guide for life, just a general observation on how things in life tends to organise itself. I agree with Joe’s view here, and I just wish to add to it. I’m well accustomed to the 80/20 rule from a business context.

Oct 13, 2024 | biorxiv.org | Olivier Dennler |Colm A. Ryan |College Dublin

AbstractGene duplication is the primary source of new genes, resulting in most genes having identifiable paralogs. Over evolutionary time scales, paralog pairs may diverge in some respects but many retain the ability to perform the same functional role. Protein sequence identity is often used as a proxy for functional similarity and can predict shared functions between paralogs as revealed by synthetic lethal experiments.

Oct 12, 2024 | agriland.ie | Colm A. Ryan

The supply of sheep for processing is approaching two million head in 2024, as spring lambs continue to be brought to the factories. A total of 57,776 sheep were slaughtered last week in week 40 (ending Sunday, October 6), with spring lambs making up the majority of the throughput (49,505 head). The sheep available for processing were of a similar number to the same week 12 months ago, when 62,538 were slaughtered, 4,762 fewer sheep.

Oct 11, 2024 | agriland.ie | Colm A. Ryan

An improved sheep trade has been noted at many livestock marts across Ireland this week for spring and store lambs. Adrian Gallagher, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) sheep chair said prices have picked up in the last four weeks. He said the lighter store lambs between 25-35kg have risen in price of up to €20/head during this period. Gallagher told Agriland the breeding ewe trade and the quality of breeding hoggets has been good.