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.
Genes linked to left-handedness identified
Are you a south paw? Gibble-fisted? A cuddy-wifter? A new study into what makes people left-handed shows that some of ...
Gene tied to Down syndrome may suggest way to new therapy
Scientists have identified a gene on the extra chromosome causing Down syndrome that may be responsible for the early aging ...
Y-chromosome mutations reveal uncertainty of male development
The idea that men and women are fundamentally different from each other is widely accepted. And throughout the world, this ...
Myriad argues (again) for patents related to breast cancer genes
Before a courtroom packed Wednesday with attorneys and company officials, Utah-based Myriad Genetics again defended its patents related to genes ...
Gene mutation may help predict lung cancer survival in nonsmokers
Researchers say they've identified a gene mutation that's associated with a higher risk of lung cancer in women who do ...
Med students should study own DNA
Studying one’s own DNA should be part of medical school, according to one of San Diego’s most forward-looking physicians. In ...
Zebrafish may help identify functions of human genes
Sharing 70% of its genetic code with humans and reproducing at great rates, the diminutive zebrafish has become one of ...
Inheriting an intellectual edge
Shouldn’t you be able to study hard and get smart? Yes and no. IQ is about 50 percent heritable -- ...
Sex-selective abortions becoming hot button issue in UK and US
On September 5, the London Daily Telegraph ran not one, not two, but seven stories about sex-selective abortions (1, 2, ...
Israeli scientist identifies protein that could treat cancer
An Israeli scientist has discovered that a protein called ARTS, which aids in programmed cell death, could help unlock a ...
MIT scientist decodes economics of gene sequencing
Heidi Williams’s dad helped with her high school science-fair projects by driving her two hours from their North Dakota town to get ...
New study shows dexterity largely determined by genetics
Scientists have identified a network of genes that influences whether you are right-handed or left-handed by looking at developing embryos. "The ...
Do fish hold the secret to why some people are more social?
It may seem like fish and humans have very little in common, but researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research ...
FDA to hold public meeting about a form of human germline modification
On October 22-23, an advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a public meeting on "oocyte ...
DNA ‘cages’ may aid in drug delivery
New research out of McGill University shows that nanoscale "cages" made from strands of DNA can encapsulate small-molecule drugs and ...
Does the UK’s royal baby deserve genetic privacy?
The prospect of learning about one’s risk of dire disease in the morning headlines does seem unsavory, but at the ...
DNA study suggests hunting did not kill off mammoth
Researchers have found evidence to suggest that climate change, rather than humans, was the main factor that drove the woolly ...
Ancient fossilized DNA found in subglacial lake sediment
By the end of the last Ice Age, Lake Hodgson on the Antarctic Peninsula was covered by more than 1,300 ...
Tuberculosis and humans have been paired for ~100,000 years
The paper, Out-of-Africa migration and Neolithic coexpansion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with modern humans, which just came out recently, has naturally been making a ...
Study provides new information about genetics and anorexia
The largest DNA-sequencing study of anorexia nervosa has linked the eating disorder to variants in a gene coding for an ...
Rewriting your genetic blueprint
Do we make genes our scapegoats? How often have you heard someone say, “I’ll probably get (fill in the blank ...
Regenerative medicine milestone: Stem cells generated in live mice
An important step toward developing regenerative therapies: Researchers successfully reprogrammed adult mouse cells, in a live mouse, to behave like ...
Finding could potentially make iPS cells safer for use in humans
Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, are a hot commodity right now in biology. The cells, which are created ...
Sir David Attenborough is wrong – humans are still evolving
Have we, in famed broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough's words, put a halt to natural selection? The short answer is ...
Four common genetic variants associated with blood pressure in African-Americans
Case Western Reserve University is part of a landmark study that has discovered four novel gene variations associated with blood ...
Parents’ genes impact child’s back to school fears and anxiety
The more we learn about genetics, the more we realize that they control everything from looks to personality to health ...
Male sensitivity written in the genes
In human development, certain genes act as master switches, ensuring that we are born with similar attributes (one head, two ...
