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.
$1,000 genome Is here
Today, because examining the whole genome has been so costly, most clinical and research labs look only at the exome, ...
Tackling appetite could hold the key to preventing childhood obesity
A heartier appetite is linked to more rapid infant growth and to genetic predisposition to obesity, according to two papers ...
Are genetically-enhanced Olympians coming, or already here?
Athletes may someday use today's gene therapy techniques to illicitly blow past the competition through gene doping. In fact, maybe ...
There’s nothing wrong with looking for ‘gay genes’
The Left loves to tell the Right that it's anti-science, pointing (not without reason) to the correlation between conservative beliefs ...
Family selects for children with lower genetic cancer risk
To shield any future children from the fear she harbors of getting breast cancer, Katie Dowdy underwent a controversial procedure ...
Breast cancer genetic tests have improved and doctors urge retesting
Over the past decade, the phrases ‘BRCA 1’ and ‘BRCA 2’ went mainstream as genetic testing to assess breast cancer ...
Calico cat genetics may help humans understand complex obesity genetics
Scientists in California are examining the ways that female feline genetics, mainly those that create the distinctive coat of female ...
OCD genes found in dogs
Incessant tail chasing, repetitive shadow stalking, relentless paw chewing for hours and hours every day: Dogs can suffer from obsessive ...
Human Genome Diversity Project preserves detailed info of isolated population groups
The recent "Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History" shines a light on the useful, unique, and publicly available Human Genome ...
Memory — not perception — might be key to dyslexia
If auditory processing is at the core of the frustrating disorder dyslexia, then dyslexic musicians shouldn't exist. But they do ...
Genes linked to feeling full may play a role in genetic obesity
A genetic predisposition to weight gain and obesity in later life can in part be explained by a lack of ...
Ancient genetics may lead to future treatment for gout
We're susceptible to gout because of a mutated gene in humans and other primates that prevents us from producing uricase, ...
Families hope anti-genetic engineering groups don’t stop gene cure for mitochondria disease
Hopes of tackling mitochondrial disease will be raised in a few weeks when the government announces regulations that will permit ...
DNA of basketball: Generation after generation of NBA All-Stars
For a growing number of fathers and sons, the N.B.A. is a family business. This season, 19 second-generation players have ...
We made love, not war, with Neanderthals
What does it mean to be part Neanderthal? We’ve known since 2010 that if you have any non-African ancestry you ...
Scientists edge closer to identifying bipolar risk genes
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have taken a major step toward identifying the specific genes that ...
Discovery points to explanation for “missing” genetic risk
Susceptibility to common diseases is believed to arise through a combination of many common genetic variants that individually slightly increase ...
Space dust is full of DNA
A study of teeny-tiny meteorite fragments revealed that two essential components of life on Earth as we know it, could ...
Gay people are not genetic aberrations
The recent gay gene "finding" hasn't been peer reviewed, doesn't amount to much scientifically, and opens the door to the ...
DNA hunter Svante Pääbo takes us back to our roots
DNA, the stuff from which our genes are made, decays the moment an organism dies. The long coils break down ...
DNA tests could confirm find of Mona Lisa model’s remains
Italian experts are closing in on conclusive evidence of the identity of the sitter for Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa ...
Fifty years later, dispute over who discovered Down Syndrome
It would have been a personal triumph for Marthe Gautier, an 88-year-old pediatric cardiologist and scientist living in Paris. On ...
Canada to match missing persons’ DNA against federal database
A pledge by the federal government to finally create a national DNA database for missing people is being cheered by ...
Treating macular degeneration with a patient’s own induced pluripotent stem cells
Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, more commonly called reprogrammed cells, start out as skin or other somatic (body) cells, zip ...
Will genetic sequencing lead to a new racism?
Advances in genetic sequencing are giving rise to a new era of scientific racism, despite decades of efforts to reverse ...
Ancient Native American DNA remains present ethical minefield
Sequencing the genome of an ancient Native American reveals more about American history, and underscores the difficult, delicate dance of ...
New bionic hand includes a sense of touch
Sensory feedback is what will turn future prostheses from tools into hands; a breakthrough bionic hand represents a first step ...
