Biomedicine & Disease
What the F@$! is Synthetic Biology?
Synthetic biology is often portrayed as the Next New Thing, a development that will revolutionize the way we think of ...
UK genetics research making strides in cancer and rare disease treatment
Prime Minister David Cameron has said it "will see the UK lead the world in genetic research within years." The ...
Harmful GMO insulin meme illustrates how ‘deadly’ anti-GMO movement can be
What happens when a tabloid-respect-for-the-truth meets a life-saving breakthrough in medical technology? You’d get something like this: Chances are you ...
Some kids un-develop autism. Could their genes be responsible?
Scientists are focusing attention on a group of autistic children who improve so much they essentially outgrow the diagnosis. Although ...
Genome sequencing on way to clinical use in treating cancer
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) not only continues to make steady advances in the molecular diagnosis of cancers, it also seems to fit ...
Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, alcoholism may have common genetic link
A rare gene variant discovered by UCL scientists is associated with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and ...
When individual has multiple genomes, genetic tests get complicated
When Meriel M. McEntagart, a geneticist at St. George’s University of London, met the family in May 2012, she suspected ...
FDA to regulate genetic diagnostic tests, will affect cancer testing
The Food and Drug Administration unveiled plans to regulate thousands of diagnostic tests, including many coming from the exploding field ...
Stem cell research sheds light on weakening of aging immune system
There's a good reason people over 60 are not donor candidates for bone marrow transplantation. The immune system ages and ...
Addressing ethical questions in pregnancy, genetic disease and baby traits
When Kira Walker was born, on June 13, 2013, her parents and doctors knew she might have health issues. Her ...
How DNA withstands UV radiation
In the same week that the U.S. surgeon general issued a 101-page report about the dangers of skin cancer, researchers ...
Y chromosome here to stay; ‘Death of Men’ has been greatly exaggerated
Over the last year, some headlines have claimed that the Y chromosome -- a genetic wasteland which is until recently ...
‘Big Oil’ can’t ‘buy’ science organizations on climate change, neither can Monsanto on GMOs
Would you eat a plant that makes its own toxic pesticides, contains DNA from viruses and bacteria, sports genes that ...
Over-active immune proteins possible links between depression and dementia
The link between depression and dementia is puzzling for researchers. Many studies have noticed a correlation between the two diseases ...
Genes linked to breast cancer in East Asian women identified
A genome-wide association study among East Asian women has allowed scientists to identify three new genetic loci (regions) linked to ...
Tuskegee anniversary, bioethics then and now
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was an infamous clinical study that began in 1932, conducted by the Public Health Service at the Tuskegee ...
Looking for a few DNA needles in a million haystacks in the hunt for disease cures
The Resilience Project wants to find people with genes that should cause extremely rare diseases, but who never developed the ...
Talking about genetic disorders: How much information do we need—or want?
It may be easy to dismiss appeals to scientific literacy as high-minded, idealistic and impractical; but geneticist Morgan Thompson believes ...
23andMe obtains NIH grant for genetics research
Home genetics startup 23andMe has secured a $1.4 million two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to build ...
Discovery of genetic links to Parkinson’s gives new hope for treatment
A new study led by researchers from the National Institutes of Health details how a state-of-the-art gene chip led to ...
Temporary mutations may allow organisms to adapt to sudden changes in environment
Scientists from the Duke University School of Medicine say that they discovered that microorganisms can use a temporary silencing of drug targets, ...
Gene linked to suicide may predict risk, spark pre-emptive treatment
A gene tied to negative thoughts and impulses may lead to a blood test predicting suicide risk, according to researchers ...
Chinese researchers edit genes to make fungal-resistant wheat
Advanced genome-editing techniques have been used to create a strain of wheat resistant to a destructive fungal pathogen—called powdery mildew—that ...
Term ‘genetic modification’ loaded with baggage, undermining rational debate
With food security firmly on the international agenda, there's a growing appetite to look again at the opportunities promised by ...
Protein linked to obesity, diabetes risk
A protein that controls when genes are switched on or off plays a key role in specific areas of the ...
Success for new embryonic genetic testing
Doctors in London have reported the first pregnancy in Europe from a new IVF procedure that checks embryos for genetic disorders before they are ...
Will whole-genome sequencing become the norm?
The first thing Debbie Jorde noticed about her newborn daughter was that her arms were bent at unnatural angles. She ...
