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.
Scientists identify rare gene mutation that protects against Alzheimer’s
After years of studying genes that increase risk for Alzheimer’s disease, scientists report the promising discovery of DNA that does ...
Skin cancer-promoting gene discovered
Researchers have discovered a gene that plays a central role in black skin cancer, also known as melanoma. Suppressing this ...
Some insurers hesitate to embrace genetic testing
"For some people, the first symptom of this is cardiac arrest — they drop dead on the soccer field, the ...
Pediatric tumors traced to stem cells in developing brain
Stem cells that come from a specific part of the developing brain help fuel the growth of brain tumors caused ...
Article addresses tremendous impact of genetic testing for Alzheimer’s
Genetic tests exist to identify risk for the rare inherited form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to predict susceptibility ...
Bacterial gene ‘therapy’ to combat cholera
Cholera is an extremely virulent intestinal infection caused by ingestion of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae). EU researchers elucidated ...
Epigenetics I: Turning a DNA packaging problem into a developmental control system
Two postings back, I promised a commenter called Sierkovitz that I would discuss epigenetics. This is an important subject with ...
In Israel, ethnic origin category scrapped for genetic testing
Jews should no longer be categorized by their ethnic origin when being tested for hereditary conditions, says the Health Ministry ...
Virginia governor issues executive order for newborn screening
Critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) affects 300 infants in Virginia each year. Gov. Bob McDonnell has directed a work group ...
DNA mapping of Alzheimer’s patients gives deep dive view
Over the past 18 months, 81-year-old Bill Bunnell has visited the doctor a half-dozen times to take memory tests, provide ...
Virus-free gene therapy for HIV shows promise
An experimental gene therapy for HIV may actually be easier—and even safer—than experts originally hoped. Experimenting with zinc finger nucleases ...
A topically applied skin lotion that modifies your genes
Future genetic therapy could be as simple as applying a topical lotion, with nanoscale compounds soaking through your epidermis to ...
Rewiring DNA circuitry could help treat asthma
Reprogramming asthma-promoting immune cells in mice diminishes airway damage and inflammation, and could potentially lead to new treatments for people ...
North Texas man among first to try stem cells for heart failure
Rayes suffers from congestive heart failure, a condition caused by a heart so weak it can't effectively pump blood through ...
Sweat glands grown from newly identified stem cells
To date, few fundamentals have been known about the most common gland in the body, the sweat glands that are ...
Genetic gamble: A new cancer treatment’s tantalizing promise brings heartbreaking ups and downs
Mrs. McDaniel, the 69-year-old wife of a retired corporate executive, had gambled on the ultimate in personalized medicine, an approach ...
Epigenetics alters genes in rheumatoid arthritis
A research team at the University of California, San Diego – led by Gary S. Firestein, professor in the Division ...
Scientists develop genetically modified dairy cows
Chinese scientists have genetically modifying dairy cows to produce milk with different properties, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reports ...
Melon genome obtained
A consortium of nine research centres has obtained the melon genome, a horticultural specie with high economic value around the ...
Genes for breast size found
Researchers have identified seven genetic markers linked with a woman's breast size, according to a new study. While it's was ...
A community’s twist on genetic tests
In Williamsburg, a bustling Brooklyn enclave across the East River from Manhattan, a sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews dresses in garb ...
Genetic weakness to cancer found to be reversible
The cause and effect relationships between these mechanisms are easier to delineate than the cellular action of either carcinogens or ...
The genetic legacy of “Jewish Catholics”
At the time of the expulsion of 1492, Sephardi Jewry comprised the vast majority of world Jewry, totaling about 400,000 ...
More genes pegged to Osteoarthritis
A large genome-wide association study has identified eight new loci that confer susceptibility to osteoarthritis, researchers reported ...
Transgenic technique to ‘eliminate’ a specific neural circuit of the brain in primates
In the brains of humans and non-human primates, over 100 billion nerve cells build up complicated neural circuits and produce ...
Scientists tie DNA repair to key cell signaling network
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have found a surprising connection between a key DNA-repair process and a ...
The black is a better athlete?
Michael Johnson, the 4-time Olympic Gold Medal winning sprinter, is standing by his assertion that black athletes have a "speed ...
