Daily Human Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of human genetics issues, including gene editing, regulations and bioethics, gene therapy, epigenetics, personal genomics, evolution, ancestry and artificial intelligence. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
The popular (and misleading) view of DNA
Despite push-back against genetic determinism ("DNA is not destiny"), there's is still a popular reluctance to reduce the prominence of ...
Should Lance Armstrong be celebrated as a pioneer in human enhancement?
Technology and medicine are helping humans to go above-and-beyond our evolutionary limitations. As self-enhancement becomes more socially acceptable, allowing doping ...
Glaucoma risk depends on genetics and race
Research may soon reveal the genetic variation that underlies ethnic disparities in glaucoma risk ...
The “right time” to have children
Are older parents trading the financial security of age for increased risk of disorders like Down syndrome, multiple or premature ...
The importance of open data in genomics
The following is an excerpt. Yesterday a friend of mine who happens to be of doughty German and Scandinavian upper ...
DA proposes DNA testing for immigrants
The following is an excerpt. District Attorney Michael Ramos wrote a letter to congressional leaders, urging legislators to require DNA ...
Controversial stem-cell company moves treatment out of the United States
The following is an excerpt. US citizens who had pinned their hopes on a company being able to offer stem-cell ...
Mishandling of DNA evidence found in over 50 cases at NYC crime lab
The following is an excerpt. The New York City medical examiner’s office said Thursday that it had discovered more than ...
Genes not the only predictor of a human’s fate, even in identical twins
The following is an excerpt. On Jan. 16, Pauline Friedman Phillips, the woman who wrote under the pen name Abigail ...
The problem with the bioscience industry (video)
The following is an excerpt. Hilary Rose, co-author of Genes, Cells and Brains, argues that we should treat the medical claims ...
RNA fragments may yield rapid, accurate cancer diagnosis
The following is an excerpt. Cancer tumor cells shed microvesicles containing proteins and RNA fragments, called exosomes, into cerebral spinal fluid, ...
Cravings and addictions: It’s all down to genetics
The following is an excerpt. I'd like to think that DNA has a significant but limited impact on human achievement ...
Aztec conquest altered genetics of early Mexico inhabitants
The following is an excerpt. AUSTIN, Texas — For centuries, the fate of the original Otomí inhabitants of Xaltocan, the ...
Bringing back the Neanderthal genome the old-fashioned way
The following is an excerpt. With all the crazy talk about George Church and an adventurous young woman conspiring to bring back ...
What is a Filipino? Looking at DNA for the answers
The following is an excerpt. What's your mix? Remember that infamous advertising campaign a few months ago, which raised the ...
A brave new world of prenatal DNA sequencing
The following is an excerpt. Conventional methods for checking a baby’s genome for abnormalities require invasive procedures, such as using ...
Tissue donors deserve to know ‘moral risk’
The following is an excerpt. People who contribute tissue to biobanks have a right to basic information about how their ...
With anti-viral genes, T cells ward off HIV
The following is an excerpt. In his lab at the Gladstone Institutes, Leor Weinberger has developed a technique for harnessing stray bits of HIV - ...
The broken promises of the Human Genome Project
The following is an excerpt. Scientists begin with a fixed conclusion, hyperbolize the benefits of reaching it, and then spend ...
Neanderthal cloning: Morally wrong and scientifically challenging
Genetic imprinting limits the scientific value of cloning a Neanderthal ...
Mining the bacterial genome for novel drugs
The following is an excerpt. Vanderbilt biochemists have discovered that the process bacteria undergo when they become drug resistant can ...
Melanoma genes found in “junk” DNA
The following is an excerpt. US scientists have found two new mutations in non-coding (formerly dubbed "junk") DNA that occur ...
Are you carrying the redhead gene?
The following is an excerpt. Some parents worry that their children will be born with a rare disease or a ...
Kissing swaps genes along with spit
The following is an excerpt. Kissing is a physically affectionate act of pressing the lips against someone or something. The ...
Personalized genomics: Do you want to know what illnesses await you in the future?
The following is an excerpt. Geneticists are predicting that within five years, a single genetics test will show what diseases ...
Biotech firms lobby states to limit generic drug competition
Some of the nation’s biggest biotechnology companies are lobbying state-by-state to limit competition from genetic drugs; this could add billions ...
Bionic eyes may soon be available in the U.S.
For people with retinitis pigmentosa -- a rare genetic disease that damages cells in the back of the eye -- ...
Ten years after launch of Human Genome Project, the future is here
In April 2003, for the first time, anyone could freely read the fundamental instructions needed to make a human body ...
