5 Key Takeaways

• 1

  Researchers at the University of Chicago developed a method to extract genetic information from nearly century-old cancer samples.

• 2

  The study successfully recovered genomic data from colorectal cancer tissue collected as far back as 1932.

• 3

  Modified genomic workflows allowed identification of driver mutations like TP53 and APC in long-degraded samples.

• 4

  The researchers detected microbial DNA linked to both normal gut flora and colorectal cancer in the samples.

• 5

  The technique may enable the study of disease evolution over decades and could be applied to other historical samples.