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.
Non-invasive prenatal testing a global reality, but what’s next?
Non-invasive prenatal testing offers benefits to the developing world. But without regulation and policy guidance, it's difficult to know how ...
Mechanism for epigenetic inheritance found in sperm
A solution may be nigh to one of the biggest mysteries of biology – how the effects of a person's ...
Cooking, farming and other ways our culture can change our genes
The way our ancestors ate, cooked, explored, and interacted with others has had a profound influence on our genetic inheritance ...
Zebra fish and cortisol may parallel human personality development
Hermella Alemneh and Mikaela Hanson are using zebra fish in a research project that could have a direct correlation in ...
Alzheimer’s gene risk varies by sex
Carrying a copy of the "Alzheimer's gene" doesn't significantly raise a man's risk of developing the disease. The gene does ...
New play takes on ‘informed consent’ issues in genetic studies
Play write Deborah Zoe Laufer learned she had four days to come up with a proposal for "a Sloan play," ...
Why make bird flu more virulent? An explainer
A few years ago, a researcher took the deadly bird flu, turned it into a highly contagious deadly bird flu, ...
Virginia bill aimed to regulate genetic counselors, but could keep them from doing their jobs
In January, two legislators in Virginia’s House of Delegates introduced a bill that should have been uncontroversial. The bulk of ...
Canadian province to fund IVF, but only one round and one embryo
The Ontario government announced it will become only the second province in Canada to fund in-vitro fertilization (IVF) for people ...
DNA of cancer patients who exceptionally respond to drugs to become avenue for new treatments
The history of oncology is rife with reports of patients with advanced cancer who staged miraculous recoveries. Now scientists are ...
How much of our genome do we share with other organisms? Take this quiz.
Find out how much genetic material humans share with grapes, round worms and dogs ...
Inner life of your cells is controlled chaos
A new animated video sheds light on the jittery, jumbled inner lives of our cells. Carl Zimmer at the New ...
Woman receives bio-engineered vagina
She was 18 when she was diagnosed with the rare disorder Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKHS). The same year, she was one ...
Genetic chimeras everyday realities, not just science fiction fodder
For years now the concept of a “genetic chimera” has sparked the imagination of writers: the idea that an individual ...
Clinician’s take on the promise of therapeutic CRISPR editing in humans
A powerful new genetics tool has the potential to correct human disease in a way that was unimaginable a few ...
Physicists model how traits move through populations
What happens when physicists play (using mathematical instruments) with the genetics of populations? They may discover unexpected connections between migration ...
Dentist wants to clone John Lennon from tooth
A dentist who owns one of John Lennon's teeth is looking forward to the day when human cloning becomes sufficiently ...
BRCA1 linked to development of brain’s cortical layers
It is well known that females with a BRCA1 gene mutation are at a much higher risk of developing breast ...
New gene target may be hope for obesity treatments
Many who struggle with their weight will often blame a “slow” metabolism – meaning their bodies do not burn calories ...
Italy’s high court overturns donor gamete ban
Italy's constitutional court overturned a ban on using donor sperm and eggs in fertility treatments, knocking down part of a ...
Pick the baby, then the mate?
A new computer technology allows potential parents to genetically screen sperm and egg donors for more than 600 conditions and ...
Publishing bird flu results remains controversial due to threat of biological weapon development
When does scientific research cause more harm than good? That question has been at the heart of controversy over what ...
Why embracing the “unnatural” can help us improve on—and preserve—nature
Can we improve on nature? Yes, argues agronomist Andrew McGuire, but he's only talking about farming. I take his argument ...
Genes may influence how much we like exercise
It’s possible that some of us are born not to run. According to an eye-opening new genetics study of lab ...
Schizophrenics age faster, genetics play a roll
For decades, evidence has suggested that people with schizophrenia have shortened lifespans. In the early twentieth century, doctors observed that ...
Breastfeeding mother prosecuted for child’s death from genetic disorder
On Thursday last week, a South Carolina jury convicted Stephanie Greene, a 39-year old nurse, of killing her six-week-old daughter ...
MRSA’s genetics affect how toxic it will be
The spread of the antibiotic-resistant pathogen MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) remains a concerning public health problem, especially among doctors trying ...
