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.
Viewpoint: Unleashing the power of biomedicine and personalized medicine
The world is awash in data. Data abundance and tools to extract meaning from data let us better understand, control ...
Post-mortem reproduction: Can your eggs or sperm be used after you die — and who should get to decide?
We can now use cells from dead people to create new life. But who gets to decide? This is why ...
Long COVID: How long do symptoms linger? Experts disagree
The majority of long Covid symptoms resolve within the first year after infection for people with mild cases of Covid-19, ...
9’6”: Here is how genetics and Marfan syndrome created the world’s tallest man
When I heard rumours of a new contender for the world's tallest man in northern Ghana, I set out to ...
Viewpoint: Animal rights groups applaud FDA decision to not require animal testing on new drugs, but there are no effective substitutes to assure safety
For generations people have associated the terms "lab rat" and "guinea pig" with scientific research. Animal testing remains a standard and ...
Have gene therapy and gene editing techology progressed enough to deliver life-saving results?
Gene therapy has had a long and bumpy history. Although researchers have made some notable and recent progress, past failures—including some ...
Fact checking social media posts claiming COVID vaccines are unsafe
A vaccine safety surveillance study from the Food and Drug Administration has been misrepresented online. The paper did not establish ...
How searching for food in trees drove ancient human ancestors to evolve to walk upright
When human ancestors evolved to walk upright, they may have done so in trees, suggests new research published [11 January ...
‘Genetic family curse’: What caused the premature deaths of Elvis and his daughter Lisa Marie?
As theories swirled over what caused Lisa Marie’s premature death, one author has blamed it on a genetic curse from ...
COVID anti-vaccine movement blowback: 35% of US parents say routine childhood vaccines should not be mandatory, up from 23% in 2019
The pandemic's focus on vaccines may have had a big downside: While kids have long been required to get certain ...
How DNA analysis led to the key breakthrough in the Idaho student murder case
How police actually cracked the Idaho killings Case: Investigators used forensic genealogy to zero in on suspect Bryan Kohberger ...
32% drop since 1991: Cancer death rates continue to decline at an accelerating pace
The risk of dying from cancer in the United States has decreased over the past 28 years according to annual ...
Using cancer cells to kill tumors? Cell therapy engineered to eliminate and prevent brain cancer in advanced mouse model
Researchers took advantage of living tumor cells' unique ability to travel long distances across the brain to return to the ...
‘Unevenly distributed’: How generation ages have changed for men and women over 250,000 years and differ among population groups
The generation times of our recent ancestors can tell us about both the biology and social organization of prehistoric humans, ...
Podcast: How blind people time sleep and eating without the light-driven circadian clock
Perceiving without seeing: How light resets your internal clock ...
Brain implants help many paralyzed people move again — but progress is slow
Brain implants have begun to restore functions, but advances are slow. But achieving full-body restoration of movement, as Elon Musk ...
mRNA COVID vaccine technology is leading breakthroughs in addressing very rare diseases
COVID vaccines made mRNA a household name. How can it help in rare diseases? A handful of companies have mRNA ...
Can mindfulness and exercise help slow aging brains? Study puts common wisdom to the test
Researchers looked at how mindfulness and exercise, apart and together, affected aging brains. The results were disappointing ...
Video: Humans and other mammals have a lot less hair today than tens of thousands of years ago. Here’s why
For decades scientists have been puzzled and intrigued by a most fascinating question, which is: why do human beings have ...
Viewpoint: How genetics impact human intelligence
[H]uman intelligence and common sense Is influenced by genetics: If we follow the pattern we can see that it all ...
‘Zero detectable cancer cells’: Experimental CRISPR tool appears to cure 13-year-old’s ‘incurable’ leukemia
World-first: Experimental CRISPR technology removes detectable cancer cells in 13-year-old. Alyssa received genetically modified cells that could chase and kill ...
COVID and cognition: How severe cases can age your brain
In a recent article published in Nature Aging, researchers found that severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) triggers aging-like changes in ...
Single shot genetic cures are coming. Will insurance companies pay for these multi-million dollar therapies?
Some of Steven Pipe’s hemophilia patients consider themselves cured. In a trial Pipe led from 2018 to 2021, they received ...
Can cephalopods reason? Cuttlefish passes cognitive test designed for children
Scientists have discovered something intriguing about cuttlefish after putting them through a “marshmallow test.” The test, which is designed for ...
Newborn Genomes Program: Whole genome sequencing for 100,000 UK babies leads to test for 200 disorders
Rare genetic disorders will be diagnosed and treated in babies thanks to a project to sequence the complete DNA of ...
Drinking lots of water ‘may slow down aging and prolong a disease-free life’, study shows
We all know if you're going to be outside in the heat or exercising, it's important to drink water to ...
How Artificial Intelligence can predict severity of psychiatric disorders
AI uses genetics to predict psychiatric disorders: The AI deep learning model can also predict the severity of multiple disorders ...
