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.
Synthetic future: Harvard Medical School professor leads effort to streamline biological engineering
If the field of synthetic biology lives up to its promise, says Harvard Medical School Professor Pamela Silver, cheap, fast ...
Low oxygen boosts stem cell survival in muscular dystrophy therapy
Controlling the amount of oxygen that stem cells are exposed to can significantly increase the effectiveness of a procedure meant ...
DNA deletions promote cancer, collateral damage makes it vulnerable
Genomic deletions promote cancer by carving up or eliminating tumor-suppressor genes, but now scientists report in the journal Nature that ...
Stem cell trial for Autism launches in U.S.
Families with autistic children must navigate a condition where questions outnumber the answers, and therapies remain sparse and largely ineffective ...
Stem cell therapy for Autism to be tested in first trial
Researchers are recruiting autistic children for a study that will test whether injecting stem cells banked from their umbilical cords ...
Stem cell therapy shows promise in repairing stress urinary incontinence
Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) can occur due to sneezing, coughing, exercising or even laughing and happens because the pelvic floor ...
Gene therapy applied to peripheral arterial disease
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene therapy could be used to treat patients with severe peripheral arterial disease (PAD), suggest results ...
What your neural stem cells aren’t telling you
In 2000, a team of neuroscientists put an unusual idea to the test. Stress and depression, they knew, made neurons ...
Public benefits of whole genome sequencing
Rapid advances in genomic sequencing technologies are making the possibility of reliable and affordable whole genome sequencing (WGS) a reality ...
Finnish biobank project receives EU funding
The University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital have received funding for the establishment of a joint biobank from ...
Protecting prion protein keeps stem cells young
COULD we stem the tide of ageing by delaying the deterioration of stem cells? A new compound that appears to ...
Search for Parkinson’s genes turns to online social networking
There's a growing interest in what our genes say about our health. And in recent years, quite a few companies ...
Book written in DNA code
Scientists have for the first time used DNA to encode the contents of a book. At 53,000 words, and including ...
Research on pain medicines seeks a genetic-trait link
An international research team is launching an ambitious effort to determine whether everyday painkillers like Celebrex and Aleve could be ...
Dysfunction at FDA threatens medical genetics industry
According to Jon Entine, after a series of stumbles and scandals, the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to oversee the ...
Myriad wins gene patent ruling from US appeals court
A U.S. federal appeals court has once again affirmed the right of Myriad Genetics Inc to patent two genes linked ...
Creating a future of personalized medicine
As a key step toward providing patients with treatments based on their own DNA profiles, the International Genomics Consortium (IGC) ...
Scientists create the first ever book written in DNA code
Scientists have for the first time used DNA to encode the contents of a book. At 53,000 words, and including ...
Man’s best friend points the way in genetics research
Dogs may soon become man's best friend on a level that goes far beyond companionship and loyalty. Researchers report that ...
Scientific journal launches controversial synthetic biology collection
Today PLOS ONE is happy to announce the launch of the Synthetic Biology Collection, including over 50 papers published in ...
Ethical implications of genetic screening: How far can we go?
Julian Savulescu, a professor of ethics at Oxford, has argued that we should be free to design our children's personality ...
NIH funds gene therapy using ultrasound
NIH awarded researchers at Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) a $1.7 million grant over four years to progress development of a ...
Celebrities may be easy clone — through their diets
Mix a cup of whisky and the occasional chocolate bar with brewer’s yeast and let fester. In a few weeks, ...
Golden Rice, set for debut, will be great source of Vitamin A, study shows
A new study found that Golden Rice is just as good, and even better than supplements and other foods at ...
Synthetic biology: Mutating the meaning of life? Some critics think ‘yes’
Critics of synthetic biology have long said that the practice should be known as “playing God” and argue that the ...
Researchers identify a novel double-stranded DNA structure
Scientists have been proposing a novel form of double-stranded DNA structure since 1996. Referred to as 'S-DNA', it is produced ...
As prices for prenatal genome sequencing tests fall, some worry about consequences for families in a real-life ‘Gattaca’
If you could know your unborn child's entire genetic makeup, would you want to? Researchers believe that tests that detail ...
