This week’s New England Journal of Medicine has four articles about the new precision in reproductive genetic testing. (See www.medscape.com/viewarticle/775687) Yet as genetic information increases, so too does the risk of genetic determinism – defining ourselves by our genes. But this is hardly a new idea. This week’s guest blog recalls a classic example of genetic judgment – the case of the man with an extra Y chromosome.
View the original article here: XYY Men – PLoS Blogs (blog)
Birth defects can be spotted more precisely with advanced genetic tests that are performed on a fetus than with current prenatal tests, and may help pinpoint abnormalities that cause stillbirths, researchers said.
Two studies published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest the tests called chromosomal microarrays could become standard for women with high-risk pregnancies. They may eventually be offered to all pregnant women, said Ronald Wapner, vice chairman of research at Columbia University Medical Center’s department of obstetrics and gynecology in New York.
The microarray tests are widely used to diagnose problems in newborns with developmental delays, autism disorders or congenital anomalies, Lorraine Dugoff, a physician and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in an editorial accompanying the studies. The question is when the sensitive tests should be given because doctors don’t know the significance of everything they find.
View the original article here: Advanced Genetic Tests Spot More Defects Before Birth
The Supreme Court will decide whether human genes can be patented.
If the Supremes allow genes to be patented, that will not mean that the patent holder actually own bits of you. But it would mean that the company would possess the exclusive right to commercially benefitfrom the use of the patented genes in the manufacture and testing of products during the term of the patent. If others wanted to use the same gene in research or manufacture, they would have to pay a licensing fee.
Here’s the problem: A patent is supposed to protect a human invention. A gene — even if isolated — is not a human invention. It occurs naturally. In that sense, I don’t see the controversy. Genes should not be patentable.
View the original article here: Supremes to decide whether others can own your genes
The UK has a huge opportunity to lead the world in disease discovery, treatments and cures. But support from the NHS and better data collection is needed if Britain is not to lose out in the coming genomics revolution, leading scientists believe.
The cost of whole genome sequencing – mapping the DNA code of any human being – is dropping through the floor, from £750m for the first-ever sequence to probably as little as £1,000 soon. Experts say it will soon be as cost‑effective to carry out a whole genome sequence on a patient as to do one or two genetic tests. They see a time in the not too distant future when it could be normal to sequence the genome of every newborn baby.
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Read the original article here: Genomics revolution: UK could miss the boat, scientists warn
Be it salmon, eggplant or BPA, the United States, India or France, politicians have insinuated themselves into the regulatory process with little regard for either scientific evidence or the consequences of their meddling. In each of these examples, there is a valuable, exhaustively tested product that poses no appreciable harm to human health or to the natural environment. Yet in the pursuit of prominence, power or votes, politicians have deprived the public of valuable products and discouraged innovation.
View the original article here: Politicians’ Meddling With Regulation Does Not Serve Society Well
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) advisory board has developed a roadmap on how farmers whose crops become cross-contaminated by GMO seeds–and lose their status as organic or non-GMO producers–could find ways to “co-exist” with biotech agriculture.
Key to the advisory board’s report was the discussion of insurance and “joint coexistence” schemes in the event a farm became subjected to “unintended GE [genetically engineered] presence in identity-preserved products.” Central to the board’s recommendations was the recommendation of a “crop insurance model” to address such “potential inequities.” In English, conventional or organic farmers would have to buy insurance in the event their crops became affected by GMOs.
View the original article here: GMO Contamination? USDA Suggests Sticking Small Farmers With the Bill
After a one week, 200-kilometer journey which began in Gauancaste, marchers fighting against a plan that would introduce genetically modified Monsanto corn into Costa Rica reached their destination on Monday, when they arrived at the Ministry of Agriculture in San Jose, their numbers growing as they made their way through Central Valley towns such as Grecia, San Ramon and Palmares.
The National Commission on Biosecurity met on Monday with the purpose of making a final decision in the matter. The decision was delayed, however, as two of the institutions that compose the commission requested additional technical information, stating they felt the information they had was “lacking.”
View the original article here: March against Monsanto GMO’s reaches San Jose, decision stalled
Salmon that’s genetically modified to grow twice as fast as normal could soon show up on your dinner plate. That is, if the company that makes the fish can stay afloat.
After weathering concerns about everything from the safety of humans eating the salmon to their impact on the environment, Aquabounty was poised to become the world’s first company to sell fish whose DNA has been altered to speed up growth.
The Food and Drug Administration in 2010 concluded that Aquabounty’s salmon was as safe to eat as the traditional variety. The agency also said that there’s little chance that the salmon could escape and breed with wild fish, which could disrupt the fragile relationships between plants and animals in the wild. But more than two years later the FDA has still not approved the fish, and Aquabounty is running out of money.
View the original article here: ‘Frankenfish’ may never make it to your plate
A national campaign to defeat the biotech rider snuck into the Agriculture Appropriations Bill now before Congress has been launched by Just Label It, the national coalition spearheading federal labeling of genetically engineered (GE) food.
“The same chemical companies who just spent $46 million to defeat GE foods labeling in California are now focused on bullying Congress into doing their bidding,” said David Bancroft, Executive Director, Just Label It. “But the seemingly ‘farmer friendly’ rider they slipped into the Agriculture Appropriations Bill is nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing and must be eliminated.”
The omnibus 2013 Appropriations Bill contains a biotech rider (section 733) that allows the planting of GE crops even when a court of law has found they were approved illegally. It forces the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to grant temporary permits and deregulations of GE crops even if a Federal court rules that USDA hadn’t adequately considered the environmental or economic risks to farmers.
View the original article here: Just Label It Campaign Urges Congress to Dump the Biotech Rider – Sacramento Bee
A story in the New York Post on Sunday warned New Yorkers about a new threat menacing our city: a pair of cloned collie mixes.
To quote from the story:
Beware the canine clones!
An Upper West Side man loved his pet, Astro, so much, he made a hat out of the pooch’s fur — and cloned him into two more dogs.
Now he defiantly lets his copycat collies run around Central Park without a leash — and neighbors say dogs are terrorizing the Upper West Side.
“This is a tragedy waiting to happen,” said one man who claims the dogs charged at his puppy and bit his hand. “The city knows about this problem and does nothing. The law has no teeth, so to speak.”
View the original post here: Attack of the clone cliches!
There has been a firestorm of activity concerning Dr. Oz following his publication of an opinion piece in TIME Magazine calling people who buy local, organic, non-GMO food “snobs” and “elitists” and “snooty.”
To say this rubbed the organic food movement the wrong way would be an understatement. Dr. Oz’s facebook page was hit with a barrage of angry comments denouncing Oz as being “totally out of touch” with real people who want clean, non-GMO food that isn’t sprayed with chemical pesticides.
Read the original article here: Gary Null calls out Dr. Oz for supporting Monsanto, being ‘propagandized’ by corporate interests
The pending sale of a major American gene-mapping company to a Chinese firm is sparking yet another dust-up over what sensitive industries the rising Asian power ought to be allowed to dominate in the United States.
A key question — as it has been with Chinese involvement in aviation, cloud computing and telecom hardware — is whether there are national security concerns attached to allowing a company largely funded by the Chinese government to have access to human DNA being decoded for doctors, researchers and pharmaceutical companies.
View the original article here: Concerns arise in Chinese bid for genomics firm
Premature babies often have to be put on breathing machines because their lungs aren’t fully developed, and some develop a condition called bronchopulmonary dysplasia, or BPD.
BPD is an inflammation and scarring in the lungs that results from the oxygen given to premature infants. The symptoms can last for many months and in a few cases leave the child with lifelong health problems. The condition affects some 10,000 newborns every year. So far treating it has usually meant tackling the symptoms.
A recent Canadian study might point to a new treatment, however, involving stem cells from umbilical cords.
View the original article here: Excellent Idea of the Day: Stem Cells for Babies
If we will need climate-resistant corn and other food production plants sooner rather than later, applying a genetic-analysis method used to study and prioritize the genes in humans could improved the likelihood of finding critical genes in food production plants.
These genes control quantitate traits in plants, such as how the plants grow and when they flower. This method can be used to study how food production plants respond to drought, heat and other factors, giving scientists a greater chance at improving crops’ resistances to harsh weather and environments.
View the original article here: GMO Corn And Genetic Prioritization May Save Us From Climate Change Food Issues
That wonder molecule of life on Earth, DNA, is now being enlisted in the search for an exotic species zooming through the cosmos: dark matter.
View the original article here: DNA may help scientists find ‘dark matter,’ the glue that binds galaxies
Every day 20 unusual lions greet visitors at a tiny animal park in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. These lions, which have spent generations in captivity, are not like most African lions (Panthera leo leo). For one thing, they are slightly smaller than the wild lions found elsewhere on the continent. For another, the males carry distinctive black manes that extend from their shoulders to their stomachs and are much darker than those sported by other lions. And finally, new research reveals that these rare lions also have unique DNA, although not enough to declare them a separate species or subspecies.
“I think they are genetically distinct enough to justify conservation efforts,” says Michael Hofreiter, professor of evolutionary biology and ecology at the University of York in England and one of the authors of a study about the Ethiopian lions’ DNA that was published in the October European Journal of Wildlife Research.
The authors have called for renewed efforts to conserve this one-of-a-kind population. The first step, they recommend, is establishing a formal captive breeding program.
View the original article here: DNA Reveals the Last 20 Ethiopian Lions Are Genetically Distinct
Americans spend more than $5 billion annually on genetic testing for everything from Alzheimer’s to breast cancer to Huntington’s disease, and the list is growing. What are the consequences for carrying a gene for an incurable disease? That knowledge, some scientists say, could ruin the life you have now.
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View the original article here: A need to know the worst news you will ever hear
NEW YORK – Wall Street analysts took a mixed view of Myriad Genetics today following the announcement on Friday by the US Supreme Court that it would review a lawsuit challenging the company’s patents related to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
View the original article here: Analysts Provide Mixed Views on Myriad After Supreme Court Agrees to Rehear Patent Case
Tommie Prins, 32, from Milnerton, told the Cape Argus last week he was “honoured” to be the first known patient to receive the transplant in South Africa. He had been paralysed while on a holiday on the Garden Route six years ago, when he plunged into the ocean, hit a sandbank and broke his neck. Now, since operations at Melomed Private Hospital by Franschhoek-based neurosurgeon Adriaan Liebenberg on October 10 and 24, an extraordinary recovery had begun.
The doctor who performed groundbreaking stem-cell transplants on a quadriplegic patient has been slammed by two professional bodies.
View the original article here: Stem cell surgery dispute
