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.
Genetic study shows dangerous bacterim not spread in hospitals, as previously thought
Analysis of every C. diff infection in Oxfordshire for more than three years showed less than a fifth of cases had ...
DNA stories
What if personalized medicine never happens? What if the promised therapies tailored to our unique genomes just never materialize? Although ...
Uprooted: The dangers of DNA testing
As genetic database grow, they become increasingly more useful, but it also raises the looming specter of privacy concerns for ...
Gene therapy developers aiming for release in the US
Of the several gene therapies that have already advanced to human trials, one of them hopes to seek approval from ...
Programming genetic code can lead to better designer genes
Reprogramming bacteria to produce proteins for drugs, biofuels, and more, has long been part of the job for bioscientists, but ...
Italian court orders new DNA test in Knox retrial
Judges at the retrial of Amanda Knox for the murder of a British student on Monday ordered new DNA testing ...
Cold, salty and promiscuous: Gene-shuffling microbes dominate Antarctica lake
Sequestered in Antarctica's Vestfold Hills, Deep Lake became isolated from the ocean 3,500 years ago by the Antarctic continent rising, ...
IVF: Where are all the stories of failure?
At the Alternative Parenting Show last weekend, the London Women's Clinic launched the nation's first egg bank. The headline controversy is that, for ...
Genetic matchmaking? Not all that far fetched
What if finding “The One” meant finding the person whose genome is most compatible with your own? That’s the question raised ...
Gene therapy study produces promising results for hemophilia B patients
A fraction of patients with a common form of the bleeding disorder hemophilia develop anallergic reaction to the blood-clotting treatment they need to ...
Glowing sperm go head to head in fight to be the daddy
Inside this fruit fly reproductive tract, a battle is taking place – a battle of sperm. In turquoise are the ...
Still chasing ghosts: A new genetic methodology will not find the “missing heritability”
One of the hopes and promises of the Human Genome Sequencing Project was that it would revolutionize the understanding, diagnosis, ...
Angelina effect having huge impact on South Australian women: Breast cancer genetic testing referrals triple
The number of South Australian women being referred by their GPs for breast cancer genetic testing has tripled after Angelina ...
James Watson’s genetic prescription: Have kids early
In his latest, potentially controversial, statement, James Watson urges parents to have kids early and chastises older parents ...
Genes that won the fame game
Fame is something that sticks to someone or something, a quality earned or gained for no reason at all. It ...
Stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s proves save in primates
In a step that brings stem cells closer to the clinic, researchers in Japan have found that transplanting reprogrammed stem ...
New patterns recognized in genetic profiles of 12 cancers
Researchers are trying to catalog the DNA and molecular characteristic of thousands of tumors, to seek out similarities and one ...
Gene tweaking for conservation
Researchers predict that 15-40% of animal species will be extinct by 2050, due to climate change and human activities. We ...
Bacteria with spider genes spin out silk
In addition to snaring dinner and protecting spider babies, spider silk makes a pretty good shield for bioreactive enzymes. Even ...
Genes could dictate jail time
A criminal's genetic make-up could in the future determine how long they are sentenced to spend in jail and affect ...
DNA-grabbing bacteria hint at early phase of evolution
Parts of us may never die – not quite, anyway. Lab tests involving microbes and a mammoth bone have shown ...
Now is the time to stop three-parent IVF
The UK rubber stamp Embryo Authority has approved the manufacture of three-parent human embryos. The process is done by removing ...
Foot cream kills HIV by tricking cells into suicide
A common drug that dermatologists turn to treat nail fungus appears to come with a not-so-tiny side effect: eradicating HIV. In ...
X-shape not true picture of chromosome structure, new imaging technique reveals
Scientists at the BBSRC-funded Babraham Institute, working with the University of Cambridge and the Weizmann Institute, have produced beautiful 3D ...
Pairing news and education: ‘Where Do Your Genes Come From?’ and ‘DNA Double Take’
A common student misconception about science is that it’s a bunch of facts and equations to be memorized and regurgitated ...
Genetic test could spare thousands from chemotherapy
Doctors could use the test to determine whether or not a patient's cancer is likely to spread to other parts ...
Egg-freezing goes mainstream with better technology
The debate over egg-freezing is heating up as more and more young, healthy women are looking at options that postpone ...
