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.
Genetic screening identifies genes linked to human skeletal disease
A genetic screening approach to studying bone disease has found nine new genes associated with bone health and suggests a ...
Genetics test reveals your cat’s ancestry
Ever wondered whether your feline hails from eastern Asia or the eastern Mediterranean? No need to rack your brain anymore ...
Explaining obesity: Diet, lifestyle or genes?
Modern lifestyles are quite different from those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. That seems obvious. People looking to apply blame for ...
Personalized medicine closer to reality: Using stem cells to study variants of Parkinson’s disease
A nationwide consortium of scientists at 20 institutions, led by a principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute ...
Your diet affects your grandchildren’s DNA, scientists say
You are what you eat, the saying goes. And, according to two new genetic studies, you are what your mother, ...
Sick from stress? Blame your Mom, and epigenetics
If you're sick from stress, a new research report appearing in the August 2012 issue of The FASEB Journal suggests ...
Fat stem cells from liposuction used to form functioning blood vessels
Liposuction may yield more than just a leaner figure โ it can potentially produce stem cells for tissue reconstruction. Researchers ...
In defense of synthetic biology: Can it help create a better future for all?
Synthetic biology means different things to different people. Its leading scientists want to create, characterise and, crucially, standardise individual pieces ...
Are stem cells delivering on their potential therapeutic benefits?
Since stem cells have the potential to become almost any cell in the body, these cells offer tremendous potential to ...
Get ready for a new genre of medical tests for the era of personalized medicine
A new genre of diagnostic tests โ which determine whether a medicine is right for a patientโs genes โ are ...
New evidence for stem cells that spur cancerโs growth
For a decade, itโs been one of the most hotly debated questions in cancer: do tumors return despite powerful treatments ...
Genetic tests could explain why some children and teens die unexpectedly
Characterized by a hidden defect in certain cardiac cells, the syndrome had several bizarre variants. One type results in cardiac ...
Company seeks FDA approval for personal DNA test
Genetic test maker 23andMe is asking the Food and Drug Administration to approve its personalized DNA test in a move ...
Man-made proteins put a new twist on evolution โ and they fight the flu
Man-made proteins. You may have never heard of them, but you will. They are set to become huge change agents ...
Elusive gene that causes a form of blindness from birth discovered
Researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Division and ...
Researchers discover gene mutations that causes paralysis in patients from childhood
Alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC) is a very rare disorder that causes paralysis that freezes one side of the body ...
Fruit flies light the way to pinpoint genetic changes that spell cancer
By studying fruit flies, scientists at A*STARโs Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) have successfully devised a fast and ...
Human family tree gets another “mysterious” branch: Neanderthal-type species once roamed Africa, DNA shows
The human family tree just got another โ mysterious โ branch, an African โsister speciesโ to the heavy-browed Neanderthals that ...
Olympic medicine: Are elite athletes really healthier than the rest of us?
As Los Angeles Times science writer Jon Bardin wrote in a recent article, โThere are numerous genetic factors known to ...
Is personalized medicine a myth?
The intersection of technology, science, medicine and design has led to an explosion of apps for monitoring blood pressure, glucose ...
New gene mutation associated with Congenital Myopathy
University of Michigan researchers have discovered a new cause of congenital myopathy: a mutation in a previously uncharacterized gene, according ...
Sea creature called lancelet’s genetic mistake was a big win for humans
How did we arrive where we are? A dainty, quill-like sea creature called a lancelet provides the best evidence that ...
Genes influence whether psych drugs lead to weight gain
Researchers have discovered two genetic variants associated with substantial, rapid weight gain in people taking antipsychotic medications. The researchers said ...
First genetic sequence of individual human sperm
Sperm cells can look the same with a similar tadpole appearance. However, the cells showcase differences among the genes. Recently, ...
Early Africans mated with mystery species of humans
The human family tree just got another โ mysterious โ branch, an African โsister speciesโ to the heavy-browed Neanderthals that ...
New genomic sequencing method enables ‘smarter’ anaysis of individual cells
Research published in the July 22 issue of Nature Biotechnology, shows for the first time that a novel genomic sequencing ...
Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease research makes advances with stem cells
Two groups of Parkinson's and Huntington's researchers working in 13 labs nationwide have used advanced stem-cell technology to make human ...
