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.
Bacterial gene ‘therapy’ to combat cholera
Cholera is an extremely virulent intestinal infection caused by ingestion of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae). EU researchers elucidated ...
Skin cancer-promoting gene discovered
Researchers have discovered a gene that plays a central role in black skin cancer, also known as melanoma. Suppressing this ...
DNA mapping of Alzheimer’s patients gives deep dive view
Over the past 18 months, 81-year-old Bill Bunnell has visited the doctor a half-dozen times to take memory tests, provide ...
Virus-free gene therapy for HIV shows promise
An experimental gene therapy for HIV may actually be easier—and even safer—than experts originally hoped. Experimenting with zinc finger nucleases ...
Epigenetics I: Turning a DNA packaging problem into a developmental control system
Two postings back, I promised a commenter called Sierkovitz that I would discuss epigenetics. This is an important subject with ...
In Israel, ethnic origin category scrapped for genetic testing
Jews should no longer be categorized by their ethnic origin when being tested for hereditary conditions, says the Health Ministry ...
Virginia governor issues executive order for newborn screening
Critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) affects 300 infants in Virginia each year. Gov. Bob McDonnell has directed a work group ...
Sweat glands grown from newly identified stem cells
To date, few fundamentals have been known about the most common gland in the body, the sweat glands that are ...
Genetic gamble: A new cancer treatment’s tantalizing promise brings heartbreaking ups and downs
Mrs. McDaniel, the 69-year-old wife of a retired corporate executive, had gambled on the ultimate in personalized medicine, an approach ...
Epigenetics alters genes in rheumatoid arthritis
A research team at the University of California, San Diego – led by Gary S. Firestein, professor in the Division ...
Scientists develop genetically modified dairy cows
Chinese scientists have genetically modifying dairy cows to produce milk with different properties, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reports ...
Melon genome obtained
A consortium of nine research centres has obtained the melon genome, a horticultural specie with high economic value around the ...
Genes for breast size found
Researchers have identified seven genetic markers linked with a woman's breast size, according to a new study. While it's was ...
A community’s twist on genetic tests
In Williamsburg, a bustling Brooklyn enclave across the East River from Manhattan, a sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews dresses in garb ...
A topically applied skin lotion that modifies your genes
Future genetic therapy could be as simple as applying a topical lotion, with nanoscale compounds soaking through your epidermis to ...
Rewiring DNA circuitry could help treat asthma
Reprogramming asthma-promoting immune cells in mice diminishes airway damage and inflammation, and could potentially lead to new treatments for people ...
North Texas man among first to try stem cells for heart failure
Rayes suffers from congestive heart failure, a condition caused by a heart so weak it can't effectively pump blood through ...
More genes pegged to Osteoarthritis
A large genome-wide association study has identified eight new loci that confer susceptibility to osteoarthritis, researchers reported ...
Transgenic technique to ‘eliminate’ a specific neural circuit of the brain in primates
In the brains of humans and non-human primates, over 100 billion nerve cells build up complicated neural circuits and produce ...
Scientists tie DNA repair to key cell signaling network
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have found a surprising connection between a key DNA-repair process and a ...
The black is a better athlete?
Michael Johnson, the 4-time Olympic Gold Medal winning sprinter, is standing by his assertion that black athletes have a "speed ...
Common diabetes drug promotes development of brain stem cells
Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have found that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat Type II ...
Genetic weakness to cancer found to be reversible
The cause and effect relationships between these mechanisms are easier to delineate than the cellular action of either carcinogens or ...
The genetic legacy of “Jewish Catholics”
At the time of the expulsion of 1492, Sephardi Jewry comprised the vast majority of world Jewry, totaling about 400,000 ...
Cancer, data and the fallacy of the $1000 genome
Here’s Mark’s key message: The time of the $1000 genome meme is over. It served us well for years – ...
Organ printing from stem cells
Tissue engineering is bringing together advances from stem cell biology, microfluidics, robotics, and 3-D cell culture to develop novel products ...
Update on gene therapy
Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) published proof-of-principle results showing a role for telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) ...
