Ancestry & Evolution
The desire to understand our origins is primal. By examining our DNA over successive generations through the evolutionary process of inherited characteristics of human and animal populations–as well as from those species from which humans share a common ancestry–we can decipher our individual and collective past and develop medical innovations for the future.
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Gene studies pose ethical dilemma when disease mutations are found
In laboratories around the world, genetic researchers using tools that are ever more sophisticated to peer into the DNA of ...
US court upholds federal funding for stem cell research
A federal appeals court has ruled that because no human embryos are destroyed in human embryonic stem cell research studies ...
A GPS in your DNA
While your DNA is unique, it also tells the tale of your family line. It carries the genetic history of ...
DNA deletions promote cancer, collateral damage makes it vulnerable
Genomic deletions promote cancer by carving up or eliminating tumor-suppressor genes, but now scientists report in the journal Nature that ...
Stem cell trial for Autism launches in U.S.
Families with autistic children must navigate a condition where questions outnumber the answers, and therapies remain sparse and largely ineffective ...
Shoddy drafting or part of the plan?: The “natural” problem in California’s biotech food labeling initiative, according to pro-biotech commenter
The “California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act,” also known as Proposition 37 (“Prop 37″), advances the deeply misguided ...
Public benefits of whole genome sequencing
Rapid advances in genomic sequencing technologies are making the possibility of reliable and affordable whole genome sequencing (WGS) a reality ...
Gene therapy applied to peripheral arterial disease
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene therapy could be used to treat patients with severe peripheral arterial disease (PAD), suggest results ...
Finnish biobank project receives EU funding
The University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital have received funding for the establishment of a joint biobank from ...
Book written in DNA code
Scientists have for the first time used DNA to encode the contents of a book. At 53,000 words, and including ...
Myriad wins gene patent ruling from US appeals court
A U.S. federal appeals court has once again affirmed the right of Myriad Genetics Inc to patent two genes linked ...
Man’s best friend points the way in genetics research
Dogs may soon become man's best friend on a level that goes far beyond companionship and loyalty. Researchers report that ...
Scientists create the first ever book written in DNA code
Scientists have for the first time used DNA to encode the contents of a book. At 53,000 words, and including ...
Dysfunction at FDA threatens medical genetics industry
According to Jon Entine, after a series of stumbles and scandals, the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to oversee the ...
Ethical implications of genetic screening: How far can we go?
Julian Savulescu, a professor of ethics at Oxford, has argued that we should be free to design our children's personality ...
NIH funds gene therapy using ultrasound
NIH awarded researchers at Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) a $1.7 million grant over four years to progress development of a ...
Synthetic biology: Mutating the meaning of life? Some critics think ‘yes’
Critics of synthetic biology have long said that the practice should be known as “playing God” and argue that the ...
Genetic patent stunner: Myriad wins appeal, retains patent to BRCA tests
Snubbing a recommendation by the Supreme Court, a federal appeals court in Washington, in a 2:1 decision, upheld patents issued ...
Scottish people’s DNA study could ‘rewrite nation’s history’
A large scale study of Scottish people's DNA is threatening to "rewrite the nation's history", according to author Alistair Moffat ...
Researchers identify a novel double-stranded DNA structure
Scientists have been proposing a novel form of double-stranded DNA structure since 1996. Referred to as 'S-DNA', it is produced ...
23andMe makes music from your DNA
Most people don’t go around all day and wonder what secrets might be hidden in their genes. Personal genomics startup ...
As prices for prenatal genome sequencing tests fall, some worry about consequences for families in a real-life ‘Gattaca’
If you could know your unborn child's entire genetic makeup, would you want to? Researchers believe that tests that detail ...
Mitochondrial DNA may hold answer to why women live longer than men
Scientists working on fruit flies say their work provides an answer to the question of why women tend to live ...
FDA seeks to regulate your cells
A recent decision by a federal trial court gave the Food and Drug Administration the latitude that the agency has ...
Gene discovery could improve treatment for acute myeloid leukemia
Scientists have made a discovery involving mice and humans that could mean that people with acute myeloid leukemia, a usually ...
Controversy over scientists plan to map and make public extended family’s genome
Not as many people around the world cared about the genes of Manuel Corpas and his family as he had ...
New genetic risk factors for diabetes discovered
Two large-scale gene association projects have identified a large number of new loci that influence glycemic traits such as blood ...
