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.
New genome analysis method detects genetic diseases more efficiently, scientists claim
A team of scientists has developed Phen-Gen, the first computer analysis software that cross-references a patient’s symptoms and a person’s genome ...
Reprogrammed cells create whole, fully functioning organ
Laboratory-grown replacement organs have moved a step closer with the completion of a new study. Scientists have grown a fully ...
Can open-source strategy help synbio avoid controversial fate of GMOs?
It’s not the use of recombinant technology, but rather capitalism and greed that has stigmatized genetic engineering in our culture ...
Don’t need much sleep? Thank your genes.
Allan Pack wasn’t always a sleep expert. He started his career as a pulmonologist and came to the University of ...
Speciation may be possible without geographic division
German researcher Christian Rabeling was digging up ant colonies on a college campus in Brazil when he found something unexpected—certain ...
Using consumer genetics to map the world’s genealogy
While millions of people spent last weekend dumping buckets of ice water on their heads and documenting it on Facebook ...
New dating technique supports evidence of human-Neanderthal relationship
Neanderthals and humans lived together in Europe for thousands of years, concludes a timeline based on radiocarbon dates from 40 ...
Where we are in the battle against Ebola
With hundreds of cases of Ebola in Africa, a panel of World Health Organization (WHO) experts has declared it is ...
Why some ancestry might not show up in your DNA
Most Americans with colonial stock in their family could probably trace at least one genealogical line back to a Native ...
Australian state legistlates anonymity agreement for sperm donors and their children
Victorians conceived through sperm donation will now be able to find out who their biological father is - but only ...
Beyond autopsies: Using post-mortem brain scans to understand stroke, head injury and death
Besides their ability to lie completely still in MRI scanners, making them excellent patients, corpses have a lot of offer ...
How do hummingbirds find life-sustaining nectar without sweet-taste receptor genes?
Birds can't taste sweet, they lack all traces of genes for sweet-taste receptors. So how is it that hummingbirds -- ...
Epigenetic changes may be responsible for Crohn’s disease
A new study finds a wide range of epigenetic changes -- alterations in DNA across the genome that may be ...
Lizard’s genes for regeneration might help humans regrow tissue
Scientists have unlocked the genetic mystery that allows a lizard to regrow its tail, bringing closer the possibility of treatments ...
Ten years in, first trial treatment from California’s stem cell initiative approved
It’s been ten years since California voters approved their state-funded stem cell initiative. Critics have charged that the initiative as ...
What happens to early childhood memories?
When I try to recall my life before my fifth birthday, I can summon only glimmers—these match strikes in the ...
Do Koko and other ‘talking’ apes communicate the same as humans?
Last week, people around the world mourned the death of beloved actor and comedian Robin Williams. According to the Gorilla Foundation ...
Efficacy of treatments and the rise of personalized medicine
Personalized medicine is the ability to tailor therapy to an individual patient so that, as it’s often put, the right ...
Drug-resistant pathogens and the continuing battle against malaria
The meandering Moei river marks the natural boundary between Thailand and Myanmar. Its muddy waters are at their fullest, but ...
Computational genetics identifies disease-causing mutations
With 3 billion letters in the human genome, it seems hard to believe that adding a DNA base here or removing ...
Is the power of the microbiome overhyped?
Explorations of how the microscopic communities that inhabit the human body might contribute to health or disease have moved from ...
Humans pushed Neanderthals to extinction, research suggests
Guilty as charged. Over the years, humans have often been accused of killing off our Neanderthal cousins, although climate change, stupidity and even bad ...
Female athlete teaches herself genetics, cracks her own rare disease
Kim Goodsell was running along a mountain trail when her left ankle began turning inward, unbidden. A few weeks later ...
Does dyslexia come with some advantages?
Dyslexia is often called a “learning disability.” And it can indeed present learning challenges. Although its effects vary widely, children ...
Do epigenetics reports unfairly target mothers?
Epigenetics studies expand what scientists understand about human genetics. It's a very cool field. It's gathered some media attention, as ...
Black Plague modified human genes, no biotech needed
Evidence continues to build that at least part of our ancestors’ story is encoded in our DNA--and the information comes ...
Stem cell dysfunction may be responsible in some cases of schizophrenia
A gene long associated with schizophrenia and subsequently studied in rodent brain has now been scrutinized in human neurons. These neurons, derived ...
