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.
Tracking the spread of bacterial infections with whole genome sequencing
No matter what they tried, the staff at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham in England could not quell an outbreak of ...
Uncommon year for flu vaccine as effectiveness lower than expected
This year's flu vaccine is doing a pretty crummy job. It's only 23 percent effective, which is one of the ...
Research in squids offers window into understanding human microbiome
From below, the squid is invisible. From above, it is adorable. “They're just so beautiful,” says Margaret McFall-Ngai, a zoologist ...
Twin study suggests environment influences immune system more than genetics
Why did you get the flu this winter, but your co-workers didn’t? The answer, according to a new study of ...
Could FDA’s plan to regulate laboratory developed tests help end pseudo-testing?
The FDA regulates in vitro diagnostic devices (IVDs) as medical devices. IVDs analyze human samples, such as blood, saliva, tissue ...
Cancer, bad luck and some lessons in science reporting
The controversy surrounding a study that suggests cancer is mostly due to bad luck has some lessons for science reporting ...
Mapping out the human brain with crowdsourced intelligence and online gaming
In 2005, Sebastian Seung suffered the academic equivalent of an existential crisis. More than a decade earlier, with a Ph.D ...
Worried you have cancer? Take a Google pill!
Google X, Google’s research unit, is working on technology that combines disease-detecting nanoparticles, which would enter a patient's bloodstream via ...
Why new guidelines for sharing clinical trial data are important
We're in the middle of a major flu epidemic, and the CDC has recommended treatment with an antiviral (e.g., Tamiflu ...
Breakthrough research: Bioengineered human muscle that contracts like real tissue
In what's being hailed as a medical first, researchers at Duke University announced this week that they had bioengineered human ...
Eleven genomic medicine centers to lead UK’s 100,000 genomes project
Eleven NHS Genomic Medicine Centres (GMCs) have been announced by Genomics England. They will spearhead the 100,000 Genomes Project, which ...
Can humans really tell apart a trillion smells?
New research questions study that claimed humans can discriminate 1 trillion smells. Scientists do belieive that there is a chance ...
Can changes in gut microbiome help predict colorectal cancer risk?
Changes in the gut microbiome could help distinguish individuals with healthy colons from those with either colorectal adenomas (polyps with ...
Low vaccination rates linked to rapidly spreading California Disneyland measles outbreak
Most people have heard by now that two dozen individuals who visited Disneyland between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20, 2014, ...
Mutation in gene causing heart failure identified
Researchers have uncovered a major genetic risk for heart failure — a mutation affecting a key muscle protein that makes the ...
Debunking Creationist study criticizing similiarity between human and chimpanzee DNA
I was recently asked to respond to an apologist page that challenged the scientific claim that human and chimpanzee DNA ...
Gene causing childhood blindness identified
Finding genes for retinal degenerations has immediate benefits for people living with blindness and vision loss, their families, and their ...
Telomere hype: How to debunk claims about telomeres and aging
A skeptic needs to do considerable homework in order to muster the evidence needed to counter the latest exaggerated, premature, ...
Are monkeys intelligent enough to exhibit human-like self recognition?
The ability to recognize oneself in a mirror has been touted as a hallmark of higher cognition — present in ...
Expanded efforts to sequence cat genomes may provide clues to human disease
Cats may have beaten dogs on the Internet but felines have been a rare breed in genetics labs compared with ...
Is there a scientific basis to the paleo diet?
The problem with modern diets is that they rely too heavily on modern, processed foods. If only we emulated the ...
Why did some experimental HIV vaccines increase risk of infection?
Several experimental HIV vaccines have not only failed but in some cases have increased the risk of infection. A new ...
How beneficial gut bacteria survive the host’s immune response
Mammalian hosts fight gut infections in part by releasing antimicrobial peptides that disrupt bacterial membranes. But it has been unclear ...
Embracing the potential and facing the fears of radical advances in genetic engineering
Companies like Synthorx, DNA 2.0 and Cambrian are capitalising on last year’s development of synthetic DNA. Scientists for the first time created living DNA ...
Unexplained paralysis in children after enterovirus outbreak has experts puzzled
A nationwide outbreak of a respiratory virus last fall sent droves of children to emergency departments. The infections have now ...
The myth of three and other common neuromyths debunked
When the movie Lucy was released in the summer of 2014, it was quickly followed by a flurry of attention ...
Corneal stem cell research rapidly translated to the clinic shows promise
In Hyderabad, India, Sayan Basu is using stem cells in a pilot project to restore the eyesight of patients with ...
