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.
DNA methylation study finds key to bee destiny
New research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience on September 16, 2012, and reviewed at the Eureka Alert web site ...
Prenatal information: Ecstasy or agony?
Slate reposts a piece from New Scientist, Do You Really Want To Know Your Baby’s Genetics? It is arranged as ...
Genes which determine human facial expressions identified
Scientists have identified five genes that determine the human facial expressions ...
Human, malaria-causing parasite genomes sequenced
THE human genetic instruction book just got more readable. Nearly a decade after the Human Genome Project assembled the genome’s ...
Geneticists verify cholesterol-cancer link
University of Rochester Medical Center scientists discovered new genetic evidence linking cholesterol and cancer, raising the possibility that cholesterol medications ...
Genes could be powerful predictor of our capacity to deal with stress, study shows
Work stress, job satisfaction and health problems due to high stress have more to do with genes than you might ...
Scientists find insulin sensitivity gene, may lead to new diabetes treatments
Oxford University researchers have discovered, for the first time, a single gene responsible for increasing insulin sensitivity in humans. The ...
Project ENCODE decoded
This month, dozens of papers have been published in Nature, Genome Research and Genome Biology, all detailing scientists’ efforts in ...
Genetic role in nicotine addiction and cessation
As everyone knows, smoking kills. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking can lead to cancer, ...
Obesity linked to genes
There has been an alarming rise in the number of obese people in the last few decades and the epidemic ...
Breast cancer linked to genetic changes caused by mother’s eating habits
Mothers who eat fatty foods while pregnant may increase the risk of breast cancer among their daughters and granddaughters ...
Gene therapy cures siblings of “bubble boy” syndrome
Abbygail Ainslie was born perfect in July 2011. She weighed nine pounds and the genetic tests that have become standard ...
Epigenetics emerges powerfully as a clinical tool
A study coordinated by Manel Esteller, published in Nature Reviews Genetics, highlights the success of this area of research to ...
Re-evaluating the junk DNA discovery
Over the last few days, several interesting blog posts and pieces have cast doubt on those front-page claims that our ...
Could Bioimimicry solve global hunger?
Biomimicry or biomimetics is the examination of nature for inspiratioin order to solve human problems. The latest wave of biomimicry ...
Genetic development may protect the Maasai people of Africa
The Maasai are a very special people who live primarily from farming and livestock activities in Kenya and Tanzania. They ...
Australian scientists develop genetic test to predict autism
Australian scientists have developed a genetic test to predict autism spectrum disorder in children, which could provide a long-sought way ...
Pain management: Is it time to start looking at the patient’s genes?
Most of you are now drawing the same conclusion that I used to draw. “Dammit, I am the doctor and ...
Debate: Do safety problems arise from cloning humans?
Debate.org provides a platform for individual's to voice their opinion on the bioethics surrounding human cloning ...
Pedophilia: Is it genetic?
Gawker published a piece on the neurological problems which might result in pedophilia, and naturally a lot of shock and ...
Home genetic test for alcoholism may carry perils
Being told you have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism could make you feel you have less control over your drinking, ...
Genes and drugs: Would sports be better off legalizing doping?
Poor Lance Armstrong. The seven-time Tour de France winner has been stripped of his famous victories by the United States ...
Gene to gene interactions important to trait variance
Gaining more insight into predicting how genes affect physical or behavioral traits by charting the genotype-phenotype map holds promise to ...
Shortness: Environmental factors can alter genetics
Pamela Surkin, an associate professor at the university, led a team of researchers in analyzing data of over 6,000 mothers ...
Genetic blueprint of unborn baby in sight
Sequencing the whole genome of a fetus could provide a medical early warning on a previously unknown scale - but ...
Myriad Genetics patent dispute: Genes are patentable, and that’s OK, says author
The recent Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Geneticspatent dispute involving two genes for breast and ovarian cancer, BRCA 1 ...
Will personalized medicine challenge or reify categories of race and ethnicity?
In the last 5 years, medical geneticists have been conducting studies to examine possible links between DNA and disease on ...
