Medical Regs & Ethics
Life in genetic limbo: You’ve got the gene but, so far, no disorder
Genetic testing is teaching some people they have the genetic markers of disease, but no symptoms yet. Neither patients nor ...
Still trying to figure out how genes and medication match up
Your genetic makeup does have an impact on the way your body uses medication. There is quite a bit of ...
Many pediatricians uncomfortable providing care to kids with genetic conditions
Many primary care pediatricians say they feel uncomfortable providing health care to patients with genetic disorders. Also, many do not ...
The first GMO (Hint: Human’s best friend)
Are dogs the earliest examples of GMOs? While the conventional definition of a genetically modified organism is the lab insertion ...
Many would give private health info to insurers to save a few bucks
Many Americans say they'd submit to insurance company medical tests and lifestyle monitoring in exchange for lower-cost premiums, a new Harris ...
Open-access genome project lands in UK
The open-access genome project in the UK, led by Genomics England, has a lot in common with the Personal Genome ...
Why hospitals will soon sequence the genes of every single patient
After studying cases and training for years in medical school, doctors are able to identify patterns in a patient’s test ...
Stem cells of obese women promote the growth of breast tumors
Obesity causes changes in stem cells that can result in cancers growing more aggressively, say scientists at Tulane University School ...
Depression makes cells age faster
Even when adjusted to account for excluded lifestyle differences, a recent study shows that depressed patients have shorter telomeres, a ...
Epigenetics of drug abuse
Studying post-mortem human brains of heroin abusers, Yasmin Hurd of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and her ...
Do the benefits of synthetic biology outweigh the risks?
In 2010, scientists created the world’s first synthetic life form. With this staggering achievement came the inevitable ethical and philosophical ...
Gene puts African Americans at higher risk for kidney failure
Genetic factors in African Americans with chronic kidney disease (CKD) put them at a greater risk for end-stage renal disease ...
Kauai County councilmembers bicker over GMO and pesticide fact-finding group, await state input
A Kauai City Council subcommittee has been tasked with building a group to assess pesticide and GMO use on the ...
Americans want doctors’ guidance on genetic test results
In an era of commercialized medicine, direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing has been on a steady rise. Consumers can purchase a ...
Could mass DNA testing change health care?
A simple genetic test could show whether you're likely to get a serious disease, and it only costs $99. The ...
Critics urge caution over UK genome project call for volunteers
British researchers are looking for volunteers to have their genome sequenced and made publicly available; critics warn about the loss ...
21st century will be the age of precision genetics
Until now, it has only been possible to “edit” a living genome using dangerously blunt methods; modified viruses are sure ...
Making sense of gene additions and deletions in tumor cells
In a paper published last week in the journal Cell, researchers at Harvard Medical School shed light on a potentially critical factor in ...
New test to tell if your DNA came from mom or dad
In a development expected to improve the process of matching organ donors and understanding how genes contribute to diseases, researchers have devised ...
Genetic clues in mammals could unlock secret to anti-aging
For years, scientists have studied how to combat old age. Now, new research suggests that genetic clues in mammals with ...
Are we headed for universal genome screening at birth?
Nearly all of the 4 million babies born every year in the United States undergo newborn screening for genetic disease ...
Gene-silencing could suppress genetic defect that causes Down syndrome
A team of researchers has demonstrated that the genetic defect that causes Down syndrome could be suppressed using the gene-silencing ...
Genetic testing raises hope for lung cancer treatments
A study of 5,000 patients found genetic profiling of lung tumours boosted survival rates through better targeting of chemotherapy drugs. The ...
Humans out-engineer evolution in the age of synthetic biology
We've been tweaking and tinkering with DNA for thousands of years, but we're just reaching a time when humans, more ...
NIH prepares for surge in whole-genome sequencing
The medical community needs a plan for handling the fast-growing knowledge about the health risks identified through whole-genome sequencing, said ...
Genome hacker builds largest-ever family tree
To help scientists investigate inheritance, so-called genome hacker Yaniv Erlich has built family tree with over 13 million people, using ...
Genomic analysis moves to the cloud
Baylor College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC) is looking to the cloud for large-scale genomic analyses. According to ...