Health & Medicine
Through the study and use of genetics, we can identify measures that could lead to the improvement of human health and wellness. These methods and procedures aim to prevent years of chronic disease and thousands of dollars in health care costs, and provide families and communities with knowledge of how to live healthier.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Brains of people with autism share distinct genetic ‘signature’
The brains of people with autism show a distinct molecular signature, according to the largest-yet postmortem study of people with ...
Genetics for public health: A lost cause?
Its power for discovering rare diseases is well proven. But genetics’ impact on public and preventative health has a long ...
Non-browning Arctic Apple hit shelves February 1: Will they change consumers’ opinions about GMOs?
The fruit, sold sliced and marketed under the brand Arctic Apple, could hit a cluster of Midwestern grocery stores as ...
Will the next FDA commissioner speed up drug approvals?
[I]t’s gratifying that all of the people whose names have been floated for FDA Commissioner...[understands] that there is fundamental tradeoff ...
Racial differences in medicine? Kidney disease disparity in African Americans linked to ‘beneficial’ gene variant
While kidney disease is widespread, it disproportionately affects certain populations: African Americans and others of recent African ancestry are more ...
Schizophrenia linked to mutation of memory, sense-of-direction gene
Mutations in a gene that should enable memories and a sense of direction instead can result in imprecise communication between ...
How Neanderthal DNA shaped the human genome
[These excerpts were taken from a New York Times interview with John Anthony Capra, an evolutionary genomics professor.] Geneticists tell ...
Viruses ‘talk’ with each other to plan attacks on cells
[Israeli scientists have accidentally] discovered for the first time an instance of viruses leaving messages for other viruses. ... Viruses ...
US adults wary of gene editing: What does that mean for medicine?
The Pew survey revealed that 50 percent of U.S. adults said they would not want genetic editing and 68 percent ...
4 ways stem cells could change health and medicine
We are at the cusp of a stem cell revolution. Understanding and harnessing these unique cells may unlock breakthroughs in ...
Whole genome sequencing fuels DNA ‘intelligence revolution’
We’ve entered a new phase in the history of whole genome sequencing (WGS). Consider that researchers at University of Toronto ...
Our voices and smartphones may soon help diagnose diseases and stress disorders
Voice samples are a rich source of information about a person’s health, and researchers think subtle vocal cues may indicate ...
Stem cell therapy shows promise in toddler with Down syndrome
A three-year-old baby -- born with Down syndrome and having subnormal motor skills -- has shown improvement after undergoing stem ...
Can probiotics help those suffering with metabolic syndrome, obesity?
In recent years, efforts to manage metabolic syndrome have fallen in with the lucrative, but untested weight loss market. Chief ...
How much do you really want to know about your baby’s genes, health risks?
Newborn screening is mandatory in most states...However, now that scientists have developed methods for sequencing the entire genome, what would ...
Spread of pancreatic cancer fueled by epigenetic changes
[Editor's note: Excerpts are from an interview with Andrew Feinberg of Johns Hopkins, whose research shows how epigenetics affects the spread of ...
Does Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list discourage Americans from eating fresh produce?
Editor's note: This article examines the potential influence of the Environmental Working Group's annual Dirty Dozen list of foods with the ...
Lack of exercise, as much as genetic factors, may contribute to dementia
One of the biggest risk factors for Alzheimer's disease is the apolipoprotein E (APOE) e4 gene. According to the Alzheimer's ...
Society, not testosterone, is the driving force in sex, equality
[Editor's note: Excerpts are from a review of a book by writer Cordelia Fine, who challenges the notion that testosterone ...
Curiosity about ideas, experiences may be related to higher cognitive ability
[An international team of 60 researchers], led by Todd Lencz from the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, studied the genes ...
Epigenetics Around the Web: Alzheimer’s drug moves closer to patients
Epigenetics Around the Web is a weekly roundup of the latest studies and news in the field of epigenetics presented ...
‘Three parent IVF’ produced a baby girl — that’s a problem according to critics
It was a first for the entire world: Using a controversial in vitro fertilization technique, doctors in Kiev, Ukraine, helped ...
Birth language is retained, even if we never learned to speak it
Babies build knowledge about the language they hear even in the first few months of life, research shows. If you ...
Heart defects in babies with cleft lip and palate linked to gene defect
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that approximately 2,650 babies are born with a cleft palate every ...
Healthy aging promoted by tweaking ‘old blood’
The effects of blood on aging were first discovered in experiments that stitched young and old mice together so that ...
Syndactyly: Family’s ‘fused fingers’ deformity sheds light on human genome
They said it was their family curse: a rare congenital deformity called syndactyly, in which the thumb and index finger ...
‘Brain on a chip’: In vitro model finds regional links to specific diseases, treatments
We have come a long way in our understanding of how the brain works, but the more we know about ...
