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.
Physicians need more education on personalized medicine
Consumers armed with genetic testing information from the likes of 23andMe and a whole host of gene testing companies are ...
Synthetic biology: New frontiers, and a DNA laser printer?
It’s been a good month for synthetic biology. A few weeks ago, in a great talk (on the concept of ...
Researchers identify mechanisms that allow embryonic stem cells to become any cell in the body
New research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem sheds light on pluripotency—the ability of embryonic stem cells to renew themselves ...
Native Americans migrated to the New World in three waves, Harvard-led DNA analysis shows
An exhaustive study of DNA taken from dozens of Native American groups that span from Canada to the tip of ...
Researchers turn skin cells into brain cells, a promising path to better Parkinson’s treatment
Using adult stem cells, Johns Hopkins researchers and a consortium of colleagues nationwide say they have generated the type of ...
Genetic tests for Alzheimer’s disease a comfort for the majority
Several genetic tests are available for Alzheimer’s disease, both for the general public and for those with a family history ...
Gene therapy treatment extends lives of mice with fatal disease
A team of University of Missouri researchers has found that introducing a missing gene into the central nervous system could ...
Dispelling myths about Jews and genetics
The current issue of Moment, the Jewish-focused general interest magazine, has an informative, fascinating feature of the medical and historical ...
Are Ethiopians descended from the Queen of Sheba?
Razib Khan of Discover Magazine’s Gene Expression blog, challenges the facile reporting in a slew of articles based on an ...
Possible cure for cancer in decade
One of the men who discovered the structure of DNA has turned his mind to another scientific conundrum – the ...
Epigenetics II: Cellular memory, imprinting, and targeting genome configuration
This is number two in my series of blogs on epigenetic control of genome restructuring and hereditary transmission of traits ...
GMO in sport: Genetically Modified Olympians?
As athletes get ready to smash Olympic records in London, scientists are in a high-stakes race of their own to ...
Differences in twins’ DNA set in the womb
Environment can have a strong influence on genes in the womb and could account for differences in identical twins, according ...
Genetic testing for athletes
Some doctors are asking if athletes should be genetically tested to see if they are at a greater risk for ...
500-year old gene provides window into evolution
Researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene from bacteria and inserted it into modern-day Escherichia coli(E. coli) - the bacterium has ...
Muscular dystrophy, Cri du Chat, “immigration delay disease”: When DNA fails
We’ve seen already how freely genetics borrows from grammar books to describe how DNA works. Linguistic analogies also help make ...
Faster search of genomic data
Since 2002, the rate at which genomes can be sequenced has been doubling every four months or so, whereas computing ...
Your genes, your identity and your family secrets
Sometimes I think we are so numb to hearing about this new genetic test or that one that we forget ...
New stem cell controversy: Possibility of stem cells in ovarian eggs could revolutionize in vitro
Are women born with all the eggs they will ever have, or do they possess the ability to make more? ...
Magnetic tracer safe for stem cell therapies
Cardiac stem cells and other cell-based therapies can be tracked to their destination by adding tiny magnetic particles visible on ...
First stem-cell fraud case enters courts
Stem cell tourism may be on its last legs. Six Los Angeles residents are suing South Korean company RNL Bio ...
New GM apple that won’t turn brown stirs concerns from NGOs, conventional growers
A genetically engineered apple that does not turn brown when sliced or bruised is in development. But it has much ...
Stem cells restore toddler’s hearing
Madeleine Connor, 2, underwent an experimental procedure using her own cord blood stem cells to repair damaged tissue in her ...
Personalized genomic medicine faces many hurdles
When the human genome project was completed in 2003, some expected it to herald a new age of personalized genomic ...
Should genetic screening be more supervised?
Thirteen-day-old Boxi is a "designer baby", genetically selected as her stem cells can be used to save her sister. We ...
Newly isolated ‘Beige fat’ cells could help fight obesity
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have isolated a new type of energy-burning fat cell in adult humans which they say ...
Cells derived from burn tissue may be useful for tissue engineering
A research team in the Netherlands has found that cells from burn eschar, the non-viable tissue remaining after burn injury ...
