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.
Black Death altered European genes
The Black Death of the 14th century may be written into the DNA of survivors' descendants, new research finds. The ...
New York City student ancestry project to analyze DNA
“I’m part Neanderthal,” Rachel Bruton, a member of National Geographic’s Explorer Programs team, told Medical Daily. “I consider it bragging ...
Who should be able to access your genetic data?
Imagine having a child and knowing at birth what diseases he or she will face in life. Today, parents can ...
Genes predispose some toward violence
Brown university professor of political science Rose McDermott has a fascinating guest post over at Political Violence @ a Glance: ...
Ouch! Epigenetic changes dial your pain threshold up or down
If you flinch where others merely frown, you might want to take a look at your lifestyle. That's because environmental ...
Irish Supreme Court says motherhood is genes, not gestation
Motherhood can no longer be decided on the basis of giving birth but must be decided according to inheritable characteristics, ...
FDA should allow 23andMe to carry on
23andMe's genetic testing health results help people take ownership of their health and prompt them to make lifestyle adjustments (not ...
Genetic screening of embryos thwarts disease and creates ethical questions
Screening embryos for IVF lets parents avoid passing on deadly genetic diseases. But selecting according to gender or disease risk ...
Neanderthal DNA traces found in African people
Call it humanity's unexpected U-turn. One of the biggest events in the history of our species is the exodus out ...
Americans both excited and worried by advances in DNA research
Most Americans are excited about the possibility of scientific breakthroughs brought by DNA research, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds. But ...
Sleeping too much, or not enough, increases genetic risk of depression
Two new studies published in the journal Sleep have found a link between sleep duration and depression. “Healthy sleep is ...
Epigenetic changes needed to regenerate nerves
To regenerate after injury, a nerve cell must turn on gene programs that have been silenced since development. Epigenetic modifications, ...
23andMe pushes on with genetic research
Researchers have gained more insight into the genetic risk factors for asthma with hay fever thanks to consumer genetic testing ...
Synthetic biology companies shift to making food additives and fragrances
The synthetic biology industry is looking to expand into creating food additives and fragrances, which could be very lucrative but ...
Epigenetic changes up your cancer risk as you age
Researchers from the NIH say they have demonstrated that a subset of human genomic sites that become increasingly methylated with ...
Baby genes reflect mom’s stress
Stress can affect a baby’s genes even before a mother conceives, research suggests. An Israeli study suggested that women under ...
Gene-sequencing gives families of unknown genetic disorders hope
"Yes, my husband had to resuscitate him," says Rachel Jeffares calmly, as she describes one particularly traumatic episode when her ...
Saudi academics call for mandatory premarital genetic screening
A number of Saudi experts, academics, as well as young men and women have called for premarital screenings to be ...
Should the FDA take a libertarian view of personal genomics?
Geneticists, lawyers, students and industry experts packed into a conference room on Stanford's campus this week to discuss the ethics ...
Peanut allergy treatments change DNA of the immune cells
Scientists with Stanford University are finding that healing a peanut allergy with oral immunotherapy alters the DNA of the patient’s ...
A height gene? One for smarts? Don’t bet on it.
As I skimmed my emails one morning, one stopped me in my tracks. "Is overeating in your genes? Take an ...
Acid bath turns adult cells into stem cells
Japanese researchers report transforming adult cells into a flexible, embryonic state via a surprisingly simple method of exposing the cells ...
What is a ‘healthy’ microbiome?
A group of culturally isolated villagers in the Amazon may hold the key to showing us what a healthy microbiome, ...
Pentagon speeding toward rapid DNA technology
Researchers are closing in on the final steps of a new system to analyze human DNA in 90 minutes instead ...
Pigeon color genes could teach us about human skin pigments
Mutations in key genes determine feather color in domestic pigeons, and the same genes control pigmentation of human skin, U.S ...
CRISPR can create viable, genetically modified monkeys
Researchers at Nanjing Medical University and Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research in Kunming, China, have created genetically modified ...
We can test for Alzheimer’s genes. When will we be able to treat it?
Recently, my father subscribed to a service that allowed us to mail in a cheek swab to learn about our ...
