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.
Should Myriad make breast cancer data available for clinical research?
Myriad Genetics may have lost its singular hold on the market for BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing in May 2013 when ...
Scientists apply century-old technique to shrink tumors using bacteria
Inspired by hundred-year-old accounts of how bacterial infections coincided with cancer remissions, scientists have shown that injections of a weakened bacterium — Clostridium ...
Are we puppets of our own gut bacteria?
Your body is home to about 100 trillion bacteria and other microbes, collectively known as your microbiome. Naturalists first became aware ...
New therapy advances lung cancer treatment, personalized medicine
Small RNA molecules, including microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), offer tremendous potential as new therapeutic agents to inhibit ...
Babies’ DNA “tweets” signal indicating bacterial infection
Babies suffering from bacterial infections like sepsis could benefit from better treatment, thanks to a ground-breaking study. For the first ...
When is a ‘modified organism’ a GMO?
Where is the threshold between natural "involvement" and unnatural "interference" when using technology to improve our food? ...
Common cleaning products disrupt pregnancy in mice. Do humans face same danger?
Mice exposed to disinfectants in commercial-grade cleaning products took longer to get pregnant, had fewer pups and suffered more miscarriages ...
More details on Google’s Baseline human health project
Google X’s new Baseline Project was made public in July. Although widely reported that the study would only focus on ...
Is epigenetics being exploited by the media?
Epigenetics has seen a flurry of research and headlines lately, achieving science-buzzword status. But is the immature nature of the ...
Blood-forming stem cells produced in laboratory for potential use in cancer treatment
Scientists in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, have discovered how the body produces blood-forming stem cells which exist in bone marrow ...
Pfizer, 23andMe working together to develop treatment for inflammatory bowel disease
Genetics-testing startup 23andMe said Tuesday it is teaming up with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to study the genetics of inflammatory bowel disease, ...
Mapping evolutionary history with genes for smell
Animals have been smelling for hundreds of millions of years, but the evolution of that sense is difficult to trace ...
Researchers tackle questions on origin of life on Earth
All life on Earth came from one common ancestor – a single-celled organism – but what it looked like, how ...
Twins, separated and reuinted, illustrate genetic strength
Jim Lewis and Jim Springer were identical twins raised apart from the age of four weeks. When the twins were finally ...
Information-rich society drains our brains of creativity if we don’t take needed breaks
Creativity, argues neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, requires mental downtown for ideas and connections to bubble up out of our knowledge base ...
Where to draw the line on human genetic modification
As the genetically modified food wars wage on, another bombshell has been quietly waiting to drop: We could soon start ...
Potential PTSD treatments to focus on individual genetic differences
Most people gradually recover from trauma, but a small fraction of individuals develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — prompting scientists ...
CRISPR technology successfully targets HPV
Researchers have hijacked a defense system normally used by bacteria to fend off viral infections and redirected it against the ...
Can stem cells aid in brain recovery after stroke?
Five patients received the treatment in a pilot study conducted by doctors at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and scientists at Imperial ...
Role of epigenetics in blood formation revealed, with surprising results
The process of differentiation – in which a stem cell becomes a specialized mature blood cell – is controlled by ...
Harvard stem cell scientist takes sabbatical following fraud scandal
Charles Vacanti, a Harvard anesthesiologist and stem cell pioneer whose name appeared on both retracted STAP stem cell papers, is ...
How ancient humans can help us better understand ourselves
For 200,000 years, modern humans have walked the earth. How did we become what we are today? In answering this ...
In an age of genetic healing, what happens to those too old to find cures?
I can still remember each second of that day just before Christmas when everything changed. The happy family lunch, then ...
Brain breakthrough: Genome-wide association studies herald advances in treating mental disorders
Nothing is more challenging to science, or potentially more heartbreaking, than mental illness. The human brain remains inscrutable. But recent ...
Call for FDA regulation of U.S. stem cell clinics
Unregulated stem cell clinics are proliferating throughout the U.S. A case in point is the Cell Surgical Network (CSN), which ...
Research links genetics, child cognitive development and disorders
How genes affect intelligence is complicated. Multiple genes, many yet unknown, are thought to interact among themselves and with environmental ...
3D “jelly doughnut” models brain, may prove vital to future research
A doughnut created in a lab and made of silk on the outside and collagen gel where the jelly ought ...
