BioTech Genetics Genetics-in-the-News

Cannabis-Gallery - Here you can see a picture by the User thewort to the variety Kushberry (breeder: DNA Genetics Seeds) into our cannabis strain gallery.
en.seedfinder.eu/strain-info/.../DNA.../17051298582622019/

I'm pretty sure the reserva privada strain is a heavier sativa than the tahoe or sfv OG. It's the chemdawg 91 cutting. Or so it says. I'm not to sure.
forum.grasscity.com/.../1040312-**t5-600-watt-hps-soil-dna-...

Nonetheless, the sources of new segregating alleles (genetic differences) were still assumed to be stochastic accidents. With the advent of molecular genetics and DNA sequencing in the second half of the 20th century, it became possible to study the ...
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Germline cells are eggs and sperm that, when combined, pass parts of their genetic code in the form of genomic DNA sequences to succeeding generations of organisms. Studying these cells can help determine what influences genetic changes that are passed ...
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They could even see the culture's matrilineal society in their DNA, the researchers said: "Part of what we were interested in testing was whether we could see clear genetic evidence of that social practice in these groups," Schurr said.
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Life Technologies said this week that it has signed an agreement with Copan Flock to provide an integrated, end-to-end system for DNA forensics. Terms of the agreement call for Life Tech to globally distribute Copan's sample-collection systems for ...
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The other study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, considers the genetic histories of three groups that live in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Establishing shared markers in the DNA of people living in the ...
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The task of finding the genetic roots of common disease seems a whole lot harder, dimming the promise of personal genomics and the chances of quick medical payoffs from the human genome project, given new data about the human genome in two reports ...
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The rarity of each specific variation means that scientists will often need to study DNA samples from very large numbers of people to draw any genetic links to these disorders. Researchers already realize that commonly occurring gene variants have only ...
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By focusing on the identification of common genetic variants, researchers have identified 57 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that predict—with a high degree of certainty--the risk that siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ...
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Geneticists faced a similar problem with the recent discovery of a “sixth nucleotide” in the DNA alphabet. Two modifications of cytosine, one of the four bases that make up DNA, look almost the same but mean different things.
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... research in the field of epigenetics has revealed that chemically modified bases are abundant components of the human genome and has forced us to abandon the notion we've had since high school genetics that DNA consists of only four bases.
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Genetic code comes in four DNA letters, A,C,G and T. Stratton said one of the most exciting findings was that one of these processes is characterized by small pockets of massively mutated regions of the genome. This sudden "storm" of mutations is often ...
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Ask your oncologist about genetic evaluation of your cancer. Researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine found that among other evaluations of the DNA, the profile of mutations in several genes indicated what category the lung ...
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ScienceDaily (May 16, 2012) — An international consortium of researchers, including Boston University Assistant Professor of Biology Sean Mullen, has discovered promiscuous sharing of large regions of DNA code among species by sequencing the genome of ...
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In two previous postings (Blind Spot and Are We There Yet?), I discussed my concerns regarding the potential for conflict of interest in genetic counseling. In this posting I address the complicated relationship between corporate sponsorship and the genetic counseling … Continue reading →

Everybody Needs Genetic Testing! The Annual Education Conference of the National Society of Genome Service Specialists (NSGSS) Proud Sponsors:  UneedaTest, Inc.; TestAll!, Inc; Twist-of-Fate, Inc; RLKVirchow Pathogenomics, Inc.; BraveNew Analytics, Inc.; AfterLife Genetics, Inc. Faculty: Speakers will be chosen by our Corporate … Continue reading →

Today is National DNA Day, a day designated to promote genetics and genomics education. I’ve always found it a little unfortunate that DNA day falls so close to Earth Day (April 22). Clearly the latter is more recognized and celebrated … Continue reading →

I am ashamed to admit that despite 29 years as a genetic counselor I have shockingly little in the way of great insights to pass on to colleagues. I have not developed cohesive counseling theories to guide the practice of … Continue reading →

I often liken the human genome to a savings bond. When we get it, we overpay. Eventually– barring an economic meltdown (or genomic bubble)—it matures. For most of us the return on investment will be low. But for a few … Continue reading →

I have never enjoyed participating in the Culture Wars.  To begin with, I have the problem of unilateral disarmament, because I’m not a gun person.  I do not buy guns. Not real guns, not bb guns, not paintball guns, not … Continue reading →

By Ewen Callaway of Nature magazine [More]

The Advances news section in April's issue of Scientific American included stories on digital textbooks, the promise of using gene therapy to fight blindness and how fragile orchids survive. To learn more about any of the stories, follow these links. [More]

After several years of setbacks, gene therapy is once again yielding promising results. One area in which it is proving its potential is in restoring vision to patients who have been losing it since birth. [More]

A little more than three years ago a medical team from Berlin published the results of a unique experiment that astonished HIV researchers. The German group had taken bone marrow--the source of the body’s immune cells--from an anonymous donor whose genetic inheritance made him or her naturally resistant to HIV. Then the researchers transplanted the cells into a man with leukemia who had been HIV-positive for more than 10 years. Although treatment of the patient’s leukemia was the rationale for the bone marrow transplant therapy, the group also hoped that the transplant would provide enough HIV-resistant cells to control the man’s infection. The therapy exceeded the team’s expectations. Instead of just decreasing the amount of HIV in the patient’s blood, the transplant wiped out all detectable traces of the virus from his body, including in multiple tissues where it could have lain dormant. The German researchers were so surprised by the spectacularly positive results that they waited nearly two years before publishing their data. [More]

Antidepressants restore well-being to many people, but sometimes at the cost of such side effects as weight gain or loss of interest in sex. And these side effects can be just part of the frustration. As Robin Marantz Henig wrote in " Lifting the Black Cloud ," in the March issue of Scientific American , the drugs that have long dominated the market--the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)--"do not help everyone and eventually fail in more than a third of users. A pill that seems to be working today might well stop helping tomorrow. And the drugs can take several weeks to start having a marked effect." Equally disturbing, some major pharmaceutical houses, such as GlaxoSmithKline , are pulling back from developing psychiatric medicines. [More]

A young woman who calls herself blue­berryoctopus had been taking anti­depressants for three years, mostly for anxiety and panic attacks, when she recounted her struggles with them on the Web site Experience Project. She said she had spent a year on Paxil, one of the popular SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), but finally stopped because it destroyed her sex drive. She switched to Xanax, an ­antianxiety drug , which brought back her libido but at the cost of renewed symptoms. Then Paxil again, then Lexapro (another SSRI), then Pristiq, a member of a related class of antidepressants, the SNRIs (serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors). At the time of the post, she was on yet another SSRI, Zoloft, plus Wellbutrin (a cousin of SNRIs that affects the activity of dopamine as well as norepinephrine), which was intended to counteract the sexual side effects of Zoloft. “I don’t notice much of a difference with the Wellbutrin, but I’m on the lowest dose now,” she wrote. “I’m going back to my psychiatrist next week, so maybe he’ll up it. Who knows.” [More]

Editor's note: Climate Query is a semi-weekly feature offered by Daily Climate, presenting short Q&A's with players large and small in the climate arena. Read others in the series at http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/query/climate-queries . [More]

A nearly 13-year-old skin cancer drug rapidly alleviates molecular signs of Alzheimer's diseas e and improves brain function, according to the results of a new mouse study being hailed as extremely promising. Early-stage human clinical trials could begin within months. [More]

Gene therapy has markedly improved vision in both eyes in three women who were born virtually blind. The patients can now avoid obstacles even in dim light, read large print and recognize people's faces. The operation, researchers predict, should work even better in children and adolescents blinded by the same condition. [More]

Stephen Hawking turns 70 on Sunday, beating the odds of a daunting diagnosis by nearly half a century. [More]

They look like ordinary baby rhesus macaques , but Hex, Roku and Chimero are the world's first chimeric monkeys, each with cells from the genomes of as many as six rhesus monkeys. [More]

Inevitably, year-end lists invite plenty of debate and criticism, and Scientific American 's is no exception. Certainly, we could have included the discovery of new worlds beyond our solar system, including Kepler 22 b, an exoplanet in the "Goldilocks" zone of habitability, as well as the first known Earth-size exoplanets . Or noted the accumulating evidence suggesting that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to retrieve natural gas is likely to contaminate water supplies. (Final New York State regulations, expected in mid-2012, could determine the future of fracking in the U.S.) [More]

The patient had endured 20 years of pain: her calves had turned into two bricks,  and she now had trouble walking. A slew of doctors had failed to treat, let alone diagnose, her unusual condition. So when her x-rays finally landed on William A. Gahl’s desk at the National Institutes of Health, he knew immediately that he had to take her case.Gahl is the scientist and physician who leads the Undiagnosed Diseases Program, which tries to unravel the underlying causes of, and find therapies for, mysterious maladies and known but rare conditions. Louise Benge’s x-rays had revealed that blood vessels in her legs and feet bore a thick coat of calcium that restricted blood flow. Benge’s sister, Paula Allen, along with several other members of the family, also shared the disorder. Over the course of several months Gahl identified the genetic root of the disorder--a mutation in a gene that regulates calcium--and he went on to propose a treatment with drugs already on the market. He continues to assess the treatment’s value. [More]

Exact details of the alternative natural and traditional therapies tried by Steve Jobs before he underwent surgery in 2004 and eventually died of pancreatic cancer earlier this month have not been disclosed. (A representative from Apple declined to comment on any aspect of the Apple co-founder's illness.) He reportedly restricted his diet to just fruits or just fruits and vegetables, tried out something called hydrotherapy and consulted psychics. In any case, a mounting body of scientific and anecdotal reports provides compelling evidence about the potential impact, both positive and negative, of so-called complementary practices on the health and longevity of cancer patients following their diagnosis. And, although Jobs's unconventional early-treatment choices may not have done much to stave off the spread of deadly cancer cells in his case, they provide an opportunity to discuss what makes cancer grow and how to stop it.Jobs had a rare form of pancreatic cancer known as pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET). Accounting for about 1 percent of all pancreatic cancers, pNET is a cancer of the endocrine cells, known clinically as the islets of Langerhans, which exist in small clusters throughout the pancreas. These cells produce hormones such as insulin, which lowers blood sugar, and glucagon, which increases it. [More]

From Nature magazine.When it was first used in the 1990s to treat an immune deficiency, gene therapy -- treating diseases by correcting a patient's faulty genes -- was touted as a breakthrough that was likely to cure scores of hereditary diseases. But when 18-year-old Jessie Gelsinger died in 1999 after having a corrected gene injected to treat his liver disease, the field became wary, and researchers found it difficult to fix the problems associated with the technique. [More]

No organ in the human body is as resistant to study as the brain. Whereas researchers can examine living cells from the liver, lung and heart, taking a biopsy of the brain is, for many reasons, more problematic.The inability to watch living human brain cells in action has hampered scientists in their efforts to understand psychiatric disorders. But researchers have identified a promising new approach that may revolutionize the study and treatment of conditions such as schizophrenia, autism and bipolar dis­order. A team led by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., took skin cells from a patient with schizophrenia, turned them into adult stem cells and then grew those stem cells into neurons. The resulting tangle of brain cells gave neuroscientists their first real-time glimpse of human schizophrenia at the cellular level. Another team, from Stanford University, converted human skin cells directly into neurons without first stopping at the stem cell stage, potentially making the process more efficient. The groups published their results recently in Nature ( Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group). [More]

In 1989 when scientists discovered the defective gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a serious hereditary disorder that primarily strikes children of European descent, it seemed as though a long-hoped-for cure might soon follow. After all, tests in many laboratories showed that providing normal copies of the gene should enable patients to make healthy copies of the protein specified by the gene. If successful, that feat would go a long way toward restoring health in the tens of thousands of people around the world who suffered from cystic fibrosis and typically died in their late 20s. (Half of all patients now live to their late 30s or beyond.) The question was whether researchers would be able to reliably insert the correct gene into the proper tissues in patients’ bodies to rid them of the illness forever.That task proved harder than anyone had believed. Although scientists successfully engineered viruses to ferry copies of the correct gene into patients’ cells, the viruses did not do the job well. By the late 1990s additional unexpected complications made it increasingly obvious that another approach to addressing the fundamental problem in cystic fibrosis would need to be found. [More]

Chronic pain affects at least one in three adults in the U.S., which is more than the sum total of those with heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. For many of these 116 million Americans, their pain is severe and eludes available treatments. In addition to the human suffering, the monetary cost of medical treatment and lost productivity has reached $635 billion a year. [More]

One day 12-year-old Elizabeth McIngvale became obsessed with the number 42, which happened to be her mother’s age at the time, 11 years ago. When she washed her hands, she had to turn the sink on and off 42 times, get 42 pumps of soap and rinse her hands 42 times. Sometimes she decided that she actually needed to do 42 sets of 42. When she dressed, she put her right leg in and out of her pant leg 42 times, then the left. Even getting up from a chair took 42 attempts. She was afraid that if she did not follow her self-prescribed ritual, something terrible would happen to her family--they might die in a car accident, for instance. “Everything I did was completely exhausting and grueling,” she recalls. “I was probably doing 12 to 13 hours a day of rituals.”McIngvale was diagnosed with obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD), a psychiatric illness that afflicts 2 to 3 percent of Americans, not all of them as severely as McIngvale. Individuals with OCD experience debilitating recurrent and persistent thoughts, or obsessions, which they try to suppress or eliminate with rituals, known as compulsions. Compared with people who have other anxiety or mood disorders, adults with OCD are more likely to be single and unemployed. In fact, OCD is among the 10 most disabling medical and psychiatric conditions. [More]

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