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.
As antibiotic resistance grows, scientists look again to viruses to help fight bacterial infections
For decades, patients behind the Iron Curtain were denied access to some of the best antibiotics developed in the West ...
Products made by synthetic organisms enter comsumer households
Consumer products containing ingredients made using an advanced form of engineering known as synthetic biology are beginning to show up ...
Some worms’ genes shorten lifespans depending on diet
Evidence that diet can profoundly affect aging is beginning to emerge, sometimes through targeted studies and other times by accident ...
Environmental exposures cause aging. We should know more about them.
Why do our bodies age at different rates? Why can some people run marathons at the age of 70, while ...
UK panel supports first genetically modified human embryos
A British expert scientific panel gave its backing on Tuesday to potential new 3-way fertility treatments that would for the ...
Japanese gaming company to begin personal genomics testing
Japan’s DeNA built its empire from games for feature phones and desktop PCs, but its legacy in leisure isn’t stopping ...
George Church, founder of ‘Facebook of DNA,’ says genetics can solve many world problems
In the future, George Church believes, almost everything will be better because of genetics. If you have a medical problem, ...
Have a taste for liver? Food preferences might be hard wired
Geneticists have found 17 new genes that help determine what foods people enjoy most. But these genes aren't related to ...
Lab-grown blood not ready for primetime just yet
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service wants to revolutionize our blood supply using lab-grown red blood cells from adult stem ...
Bruce Ames, identifier of mutation causing chemicals, lists his greatest discoveries
In an otherwise ordinary day in 1964, Bruce Ames picked up a box of potato chips and read the list ...
Rhode Island bill allows DNA collection from any arrestee
A bill before the Rhode Island General Assembly would give law enforcement sweeping new powers to collect DNA from people ...
Breast cancer gene also raises risk of lung cancer in smokers
After comparing the DNA of 11,348 Europeans with lung cancer and 15,861 cancer-free patients, researchers found a particularly strong contention ...
Mosquito-borne dengue fever threatens Brazil World Cup but GM solution blocked by biotech fears
Construction woes aside, visitors to the World Cup in Brazil face a serious threat of mosquito-borned dengue fever. Over 2.5 ...
Anne Glover, Europe’s chief science adviser faces anti-GMO, anti-tech politics
The European Commission's chief science adviser said publicly that politics impedes her ability to give unbiased advice to European policy ...
Drugs that block genetic breaks on immune system lengthen cancer survival
Drugs that unleash the body’s immune system to combat tumors could allow patients with advanced melanoma to live far longer ...
X-linked gene controls two common male reproductive birth defects
Baylor College of Medicine scientists defined a previously unrecognized genetic cause for two types of birth defects found in newborn ...
Blondness carried in a single allele that enhances known hair color genes
Some Europeans have enhancers that make them blond. In this case, the enhancer isn’t a hair dye, but a genetic ...
Justice requires that forensic sciences be standardized to protect the innocent
Santae Tribble is one of more than 350 people who have been exonerated by DNA testing after going to prison ...
First avian pollinator discovered: 47 million years old
The discovery, uncovered in Germany's fossil-rich Messel Pit, reveals a three-inch-long (eight-centimeter) bird—about the size of a hummingbird you see ...
Peruvian village where many men go blind by 50 leads to stigmitization
Parán is a small dusty village in the foothills of the Andes in Peru, and for a long time, everyone ...
Humans speed natural species extinction by 1,000 years
First the bad news. Humans are driving species to extinction at around 1000 times the natural rate, at the top ...
Metabolic changes in human evolution: Hungry brains and frugal muscles
For decades, scientists have wondered how our metabolism compares to that of other species. It’s been a hard question to ...
Wade responds to racial controversy over his book ‘A Troublesome Inheritance’
hree attacks on my book A Troublesome Inheritance have appeared on The Huffington Post's blog this month. For readers puzzled ...
Beliefs about creationism not good test of public’s science literacy
When asked if they believe in evolution, half of Americans say no. Experts largely regard this as a test of ...
Bum knees? Sports stars like CC Sabathia find success in experimental stem cell treatments
CC Sabathia, a starting pitcher for the New York Yankees, is making $23 million this year, and the same or ...
Hawaiian crickets escape parasite through gene mutations that keep them quiet
The crickets hadn’t disappeared. Marlene Zuk would go for nighttime walks and see multitudes of the insects in the light ...
Wisconsin allows police to track rape suspects through relatives’ DNA
Wisconsin has joined a handful of states in allowing familial DNA testing — a powerful but debatable procedure — to ...
