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.
Fighting Viruses with RNAi
Plants, fungi, and invertebrates use RNA interference (RNAi) to fend off invading viruses. Mammals, on the other hand, are known ...
Misunderstandings retard growth of personal genomics
Genome sequencing has improved over the years. But misunderstandings about the accuracy and value of the tests abound ...
Ancient DNA unravels Europe’s genetic diversity
Ancient DNA recovered from a time series of skeletons in Germany spanning 4,000 years of prehistory has been used to ...
Kissing assesses the genetic quality of a potential sexual partner
Kissing is a way for people to assess the genetic quality of a potential sexual partner and is especially important ...
For Myriad Genetics, the gene patent fight isn’t over yet
Whether sequences of genetic material can be patented has been a matter of heated debate for the past decade or ...
Worms tell a tale of how nerves develop
How nerve cells branch out and develop is a somewhat mysterious process, but a new study reveals how at least ...
Why I love genetics
A few years ago I had a discussion with a friend about our academic backgrounds. She is a neurobiologist by ...
Family remembers Lacks’ legacy
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African-American woman and mother of five, was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore ...
DNA tests bring fate of France’s Henri IV to head
A mummified head thought to belong to French king Henri IV now appears to be nothing of the sort. Three ...
RNA mimic destined for synthetic genome
US scientists have taken another step towards the goal of creating self-replicating molecules like those thought to have spawned life ...
No Nobel, but epigenetics finally gets the recognition it deserves
Adrian Bird, Howard Cedar and Aharon Razin were hotly tipped to win this year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine for their ...
The latest on Google’s battle plan against death: analyzing the genetics of aging
Google Venture's Calico plans to capitalize take on the problem of aging and age-related disease by studying genetics. What's known ...
New York cops use DNA to ID mother of ‘Baby Hope’ in 22-year-old case
She died without a name, so small her body barely filled a picnic cooler abandoned beside a highway. Officials called ...
Breakthroughs in prenatal screening
Improvements in medical science make it prenatal screening tests that can detect chromosomal problems in the fetus accurate and commonplace ...
Scientists turn to GM wheat to avert potential global crisis
Rising populations, new diseases and climate change threaten the wheat yields that sustain much of the planet. But, scientists have ...
Genetic mutation linked to eating disorders discovered
Although prevalence of eating disorders cannot be tracked precisely, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder together may affect five ...
Marital satisfaction may be controlled by a gene, study says
The reason your marriage is plagued by extreme highs and lows may lie in your DNA, a study claims. The ...
Bad kids can’t blame their genes
A paper just published reports that there are: No Genetic Influence for Childhood Behavior Problems From DNA Analysis This is pretty ...
Weighing surgery in light of a breast cancer gene
When Tracy Dunbrook, a bioethicist in Sherman, Conn., tested positive for the BRCA gene mutation, she was told she had ...
Wait, could we make a computer out of our DNA?
It's easy to miss the amazing natural computing power of living things. Our brains recognize faces with a facility that ...
IVF costs set to soar, scientists warn
Scientists have only a few weeks to block a patent that could have serious implications for couples seeking IVF treatments ...
Massive DNA study points to new heart drug targets and a key role for triglycerides
A global hunt for genes that influence heart disease risk has uncovered 157 changes in human DNA that alter the ...
Can you trust Facebook with your genetic code?
We share everything on Facebook: our family photos, intimate thoughts, relationship woes. Some of us even post our DNA. Thousands of ...
Ethical issues as scientists peek into baby genes
Should genome sequencing become a routine part of newborn care? Is it legal, ethical, or even good medical practice? ...
Scientist who mapped human genome says we will be able to ‘print’ alien life from Mars
Scientists will soon be able to design and print simple organisms using biological 3D printers says J. Craig Venter, the ...
How population genetics may help explain economic growth
Alex Tabarrok links to a short post today by a couple of researchers who study the transmission of ideas throughout history ...
Does IVC cause more cancer in children or not?
The short answer is we don’t know. But another news story is out on a study that raises more questions than it ...
