Giving Compass' Take:

• Julia Evangelou Strait explains how so-called "jumping genes" may accelerate the growth of cancerous tumors. 

• How can funders work to build a better understanding of the role and consequences of jumping genes? 

• Learn how to find and fund scientific research. 

New research heavily implicates a genetic phenomenon commonly known as “jumping genes” in the growth of tumors.

Since jumping genes aren’t mutations—mistakes in the letters of the DNA sequence— traditional cancer genome sequencing can’t identify them. As such, this study opens up new lines of research for future cancer therapies that might target such genes.

Jumping genes, which scientists call transposable elements, are short sections of the DNA sequence that the genome has incorporated randomly over the long course of human evolution. Much current research focuses on the evolutionary histories of jumping genes, but researchers think viral infection may play an important role in their origins.

Read the full article about jumping genes by Julia Evangelou Strait at Futurity.