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.
Old immunotherapy drug revived with some treatment tweeks
When Dave deBronkart was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer in 2007, he learned about a treatment called high-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) ...
Genetic susceptibility and well-timed exposures responsible for adult allergies
Allergies are largely genetic. If a parent has allergies, chances are good the children will too. But that doesn't necessarily ...
Antibiotics can harm even when they work, contributing to allergies, diabetes, maybe autism
Antibiotics have ended untold human misery by curing bacterial infections, yet we are losing these wonder drugs. New Scientist has ...
Chicken Coop project traces genetics, history of multi-talented domestic chicken
Who cares how the chicken crossed the road; the intriguing question is now did it become such a multi-tasker. Nature's ...
Geneticist’s take on cystic fibrosis gene therapy
I’m at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy annual meeting, one of my favorite conferences. The very first ...
Connection between pain and aging may lead through matabolic genes
Age brings pain: back pain, eye strain, sore joints, and the like. And pain, too, seems to accelerate aging. Several ...
Building a virtual organism from the ground up–Let’s start with worms
The OpenWorm project wants you to help you build the world's first complete virtual organism so we can better understand ...
As reproductive technology charges ahead, legislative and ethical oversight flounders
Technology to assist human reproduction is growing quickly and without much government oversight. As these options expand past creating unorthodox ...
Non-celiac gluten senstivity disproven in experiment
By now, you’ve probably heard of gluten-free diets. They’re a necessity for the estimated 2 million Americans with celiac disease ...
Meet the coolest new species discovered in 2014
A top 10 list of species discovered in the last 12 months is topped by the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina), a ...
Ancient remedy, silver, offers promise where antibiotics fail
Several years ago, a mosquito bite on Elizabeth Loboa’s right leg became infected, turning into an oozing sore that refused ...
Modern techniques don’t change the fact that humans have genetically engineered plants and animals for centuries
Genetically modified plants and animals are often feared as "Frankenfoods," but is there really anything dangerously new about manipulation of ...
Lab grown burgers may be too pricey (and weird?) for mainstream market
Made with some breadcrumbs, egg, and 20,000 lab-grown cow muscle cells, the world's first lab-grown burger made its debut last ...
Animals who are both male and female offer insight into evolutionary development
A very odd creature flitted past friends James Adams and Irving Finkelstein—a swallowtail unlike any they had ever seen. Its ...
Genetics of ‘race’ unequivocal, only seems controversial because post-modernists, PC media dissimulate
Nicholas Wade’s "A Troublesome Inheritance" has come under attack in some circles because it acknowledges what is an unarguable fact ...
Where DNA says ‘stop,’ some microbes go
The instructions encoded into DNA are thought to follow a universal set of rules across all domains of life. But ...
Why not destroy all small pox samples? Threat of synthetic recreation one reason
When the world eradicated smallpox in 1980, it was the first — and still only — time that people have ...
Gene determines size of fat cells, might help treatments for insulin resistance
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have for the first time identified a gene driving the development of pernicious adipose ...
Scientific American blogger invokes KKK to try to discredit Wade’s “race” book
Old middle school trick: Instead of calling someone a name, ‘stupid’ for example, just say his ideas are stupid and ...
Disabling a gene that breaks down insulin may help treat Type 2 diabetes
A long-sought target in the treatment of diabetes is coming into focus, as researchers report the discovery of a molecule ...
Did humans evolve to coexist with HPV? New study suggests maybe
In what is believed to be the largest and most detailed genetic analysis of its kind, researchers at NYU Langone ...
Unraveling the mystery of the links between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals
BioCentury This Week recently interviewed Svante Pääbo, biologist and about his work sequencing the Neanderthal genome, as well as his ...
“Aliens of the sea” show there’s more than one way to build a brain
Comb jellies are surreal creatures that are more unique than previously thought; they appear to have evolved their own brains ...
Females can change their reproductive tracts depending on the sperms X or Y chromosome
Old wives’ tales abound about how to tip the odds of conceiving a boy or a girl. Some say that ...
New job for RNA: Hold tight to proteins to turn genes on and off
The small RNA RsmZ is known to sequester proteins that repress translation in bacteria. A study published in Nature this ...
Baby’s microbiome may come from mom’s mouth via placenta
Babies in the womb are not as sheltered from the outside world as you might think. The placenta harbours a ...
Mutation that makes toxic protein responsible for cardiac aging in patients with rare aging disease
Children with progeria, a rare disorder that causes premature aging, die in their teens of ailments that are common in ...
