disease
Are GMO critics more open to gene editing that targets plant and human diseases?
The early generations of transgenic plants focused primarily on increasing productivity, either by reducing pest damage or increasing yields by ...
Why you need to know about RNA therapy and its potential to revolutionize disease treatment
After a decade of painstaking progress, the underdog is on the brink of treating a broad range of diseases ...
Failure of race-based medicine? We aren’t accounting for the unique genetics of biracial and multiracial populations
For several decades in modern medicine history, human race has been used as a constant variable to predict and/or determine ...
Most adults want DNA testing – but don’t want to be ‘blindsided’ by results
Only a small percentage of people in their 50s and early 60s have had their DNA tested—for medical reasons, to ...
In order to thrive, precision medicine requires ‘novel business solutions’
Oncology currently leads the way in precision medicine advancements, but its forward progress is slowed by inefficiencies such as clinical ...
3 reasons ALS research struggles to find treatment answers
[T]he desire to give [ALS] patients hope has often outstripped good scientific sense. “Many drugs that have gone into ALS ...
Do children have a right to know about a parent’s serious hereditary disease?
Genetic diagnosis is getting ever more sophisticated. But as doctors uncover diseases that are hereditary, who needs to know? Shaun ...
‘Foot soldiers’ of disease: Plasma proteins could be key to understanding genetic risks
[Blood plasma] is the home of the “secretome,” a host of proteins that serve as inter-cell communicators. These proteins are ...
Confusion over the origins of smallpox vaccine could leave us ‘vulnerable to a future outbreak’
Not only is there the potential for smallpox (or at the very least, something very similar) to resurge, but unbeknownst ...
‘Living medicine’: Reengineering bacteria to tackle genetic diseases
In a study carried out over the summer, a group of volunteers drank a white, peppermint-ish concoction laced with billions ...
Living with hemophilia: When patients with genetic disorders don’t want to be cured
Jeff Johnson is 40 years old, and for all 40 of those years, he has been living with hemophilia. The ...
Bringing us closer to ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ hemophilia treatment with experimental gene therapies
Scientists are edging closer to defeating a longtime enemy of human health: hemophilia, the inability to form blood clots. After ...
Genetic crystal ball? Forecasting 5 serious diseases with algorithm that checks 6.6 million DNA spots
Scientists have created a powerful new tool to calculate a person’s inherited risks for heart disease, breast cancer and three ...
Sequenced wheat genome will help scientists combat disease in earth’s most widely-grown crop
The complete sequence of the huge wheat genome [was published August 16th], and the enormous dataset will accelerate innovation in ...
What if humans could hibernate?
Whether they are amphibians, mammals, birds, or something else, animals use metabolic depression to thrive in places where they otherwise ...
Talking Biotech: Winning the disease resistance ‘arms race’ against plant pathogens to ensure food security
The disease resistance arms race between plants and pathogens continues. But scientists have entered this war on the side of ...
Scientist chases cure for her rare brain disorder using ‘clear genetic blueprint’
In 2011, Sonia Vallabh was handed a genetic report that contained a death sentence. But it also held a map ...
10 questions about consumer genetics tests
So-called direct-to-consumer DNA testing companies like 23andMe, Ancestry and Helix advertise the ability to reveal your ancestry, inform you of ...
Boosting brain research by growing ‘mini-brains’ to model human disease
'Mini-brains' grown in petri dishes could offer new possibilities for studying disease ...
Tale of two families: Exome sequencing and faster diagnosis of rare disorders
Sailing from New York City to London a century ago took days; today the trip takes hours by air. Similarly, ...
How the genetics revolution is upending our concept of disease—and how that could improve healthcare
What is a disease? This seemingly abstract and theoretical question is actually among the most practical questions in all of ...
GMO coffee is on the horizon—but will we drink it?
Remember the Gros Michel banana? If you're under the age of seventy, you probably don't. That's because in the 1950s ...
Marrying close relatives offers genetic risks and benefits for offspring
Endogamy is a powerful but controversial cultural tool. It also can play surprising roles in health and disease ...
To protect vineyards from pests and reduce pesticide use, CRISPR could be the answer
The powdery mildew fungus decimates vineyards around the globe. As pesticides become less effective, some scientists are turning to gene ...
Kissing cousins: Understanding the genetic risks and benefits when close relatives marry
Endogamy––the marriage of relatives––is a controversial cultural practice. It can play surprising roles in health and disease ...
Fighting antibiotic ‘superbugs’—DNA sequencing helps in the battle
The successful effort to contain an outbreak of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) at a UK hospital demonstrates the ...
Genetics brought to bear in fight against modern cholera outbreaks
Although cholera is a disease that is thought of as mostly extinct, it still persists today in underdeveloped areas. The ...
