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.
Screening for rare disorder saves couple from second childbirth nightmare
A Colorado couple has two healthy children thanks to sophisticated genetic screening. They were able to choose disease-free embryos over ...
Designer children? Will movement for 3-parent babies change how we view parenthood?
Last week members of the British House of Commons passed a bill legalizing mitochondrial DNA transfers--a process that combines three ...
Should human genetic modification always be considered taboo?
Want to see what a genetically modified human looks like? Just glance in the mirror. You are the result of ...
Is century-old remedy the solution to antibiotic resistance?
Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, scientists have amassed a medical arsenal of more than 130 antibiotics. The drugs ...
Obesity linked to our nervous system
The team scoured DNA libraries of more than 300,000 people, constructing the largest-ever genetic map of obesity. Looking for consistent ...
Challenging popular beliefs about epigenetics
Dirk Schübeler and his group at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) identify determinants that set epigenetic marks ...
Coming age of Xenotransplantation: Would you accept an organ from a pig to save your life?
21 people die every day in the US awaiting a transplant. A shortage of organs means a shortage of organs ...
Was Beethoven’s music inspired by genetic mutations for arrhythmia?
Arrhythmia is a largely a genetic condition that can greatly hinder--or in the rare case of Beethoven, inspire--life. New research ...
Fit to be cloned: Making case for reintroducing extinct species
De-extinction raises a host of questions: ethical, practical, philosophical. But for advocates, there’s a rhetorical question as well: How do ...
Light-activated genes in bacteria engineered with CRISPR-Cas9
Scientists may have taken a step closer to making science fiction a medical reality. Researchers at Duke University have developed ...
Should animals have legal rights currently reserved for humans?
Tommy the chimpanzee got his day in court on October 8, 2014. He was unable to attend the hearing in ...
Drug-resistant malaria may pose enormous threat, doctor warns
Despite a sharp drop in malaria-related deaths over the past decade, a veteran doctor here, in the heart of the ...
Discussion with Mary-Claire King: Breast cancer gene discoverer
There has never been a scientific career quite like Mary-Claire King’s. Years ago, her doctoral thesis concluded that humans and ...
Hormone therapeutics boosted by unique cow antibodies
The friendly cow, said to be blown by all the winds that pass, and wet with all the showers, may ...
Challenge to Apple, Facebook: Unfair to prioritize egg-freezing over childcare
The pressure is immense. In stepped a few corporate giants with a plan meant to help young (and youngish) women ...
Are fears of genetic testing rational?
DNA testing has become very popular among genealogists. The birth certificates, census records, and other documents they usually rely on ...
Origin of mammalian pregnancy revealed by genomic ‘parasites’
An international team of scientists has identified large-scale genetic changes that marked the evolution of pregnancy in mammals. They found ...
How do viruses become contagious?
Here are two recent stories about viruses. They started out alike, and ended up very differently. In October, a woman ...
Is science leading modern society down the right path?
When John G. West’s Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of ...
Precision medicine is a big step in the right direction
Re “ ‘Moonshot’ Medicine Will Let Us Down” (Op-Ed, Jan. 29): Michael J. Joyner asserts that precision medicine, an exciting ...
Does harder living translate to shorter lifespans?
A common belief among human life history researchers is that "harsher" environments - i.e., those with higher mortality rates and ...
What’s lurking in New York City’s subway?
The Wall Street Journal released an interactive map of the bacteria in New York’s subway system. And as expected, it's ...
How oncologists sort through masses of genetic data
Whether they are concerned with a mutation of a single gene, or mutations in a combination of two or more ...
More potential health benefits found from drinking red wine
Researchers at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine report that a compound found in common foods such as ...
How the UK House of Commons was swayed to approve 3-parent IVF
If you have been following the debate about whether to allow the new IVF technique of mitochondrial donation, which was ...
Genetics policy can help, or hurt, racial and social justice
The sequencing of the human genome and the science that made that feat possible have led to some fascinating new ...
In retrospect, Obama’s personalized medicine initiative is nothing new
In the State of the Union speech delivered on January 20, President Obama made the first announcement of what seems ...
