President Calls for Genetic Privacy Bill - New York Times "President Bush on Wednesday urged Congress to pass long-stalled legislation to safeguard genetic privacy, a measure experts say would encourage millions of Americans to undergo testing that could lead to prevention and treatment of cancer and other diseases. If a person is willing to share his or her genetic information, it is important that that information not be exploited in improper ways, Mr. Bush said at the National Institutes of Health. ..."
Coalition for Genetic Fairness Sees Light at the End of Discrimination Tunnel "The Coalition for Genetic Fairness applauded President Bush's comments today at NIH. The President said, "I really want to make it clear to the Congress that I hope they pass legislation that makes genetic discrimination illegal." ..."
BBC NEWS | Health | Hormone 'no anti-ageing elixir' "There is no proof that growth hormone therapy makes people live longer, say US scientists.The therapy has been touted in some quarters as a way to prevent - or even reverse - ageing. ..."
Drugs I'd like to see "So here is a list of drugs I’d love to see that would address some of the social inequity caused by innate differences among people, along with the "proper" disease indication to make the FDA happy ..."
The lost art of the letter - PhysicsWeb "The Internet is affecting not only how scientists communicate, but also how future science historians will have to work ..."
Cognitive Enhancement: A Review of Technology "Cognitive enhancement aims at amplifying or extending the abilities of the mind through internal or external hardware or software. Up until recently only internal software in the form of trained efficient mental algorithms and the general enhancing effects of paperbased information management was available. As cognitive neuroscience has advanced the range of potential internal enhancement treatments have increased3, as well as the availability and power of external hardware/software support. ..."
New Report Finds Little Evidence To Determine the Usefulness of Genetic Tests in the Treatment of Depression "There is insufficient evidence to determine if current gene-based tests intended to personalize the dose of medications in a class of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) improve patient outcomes or aid in treatment decisions in the clinical setting, according to a new evidence report supported by a collaboration of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Office of Public Health Genomics. ..."
A Wide Majority of Physicians Favor Patient-Centered Care But Fewer Than One-Fourth Practice It "Physicians favor "patient-centered care" but only 22 percent scored high in incorporating such techniques into their day-to-day practices ..."
DNA Interactive ...
Gene that makes people 'early to bed and early to rise' demystified "The recent discovery that a mutant "clock" gene made some people "early to bed and early to rise," a condition known as familial advanced sleep phase syndrome (FASPS), offered one of the first glimpses into the genetic basis of sleep in humans. Now, researchers report in the Jan. 12, 2007 issue of the journal Cell, published by Cell Press, new evidence that helps to explain just how their bodies' natural alarm clocks get set to such an early wake-up time. ..."
Alzheimer's gene identified: study "An international effort led by scientists at the University of Toronto, Columbia University and Boston University has isolated another gene responsible for Alzheimer's disease. ..."
Scientists map key landmarks in human genome "Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have developed a powerful method for charting the positions of key gene-regulating molecules called nucleosomes throughout the human genome. The mapping tool could help uncover important clues for understanding and diagnosing cancer and other diseases, the scientists say. Moreover, it may shed light on the role of nucleosomes in the process of "reprogramming" an adult cell to its original embryonic state, which is a critical operation in cloning. ..."
Growth hormone is not the anti-aging bullet for healthy adults "A review of published data on use of human growth hormone (GH) by healthy elderly people found that the synthetic hormone was associated with small changes in body composition but not in body weight or other clinically important outcomes. ..."
New research says winning a Nobel Prize adds nearly 2 years to your lifespan "New research by the University of Warwick reveals that a Nobel Prize brings more than just cash and kudos - it can also add nearly two years to your life. ..."
Biobanking and Biorepositories 2007"However, developments in technology and the emergence of regulations on how to establish, maintain and use biobanks are forcing issues of storage, collection and ethical considerations to the forfront of those involved in the process of biobanking.These issues and more will be addressed at a conference solely dedicated to biobanking of human samples as Informa Life Sciences proudly present Biobanking and Biorepositories 2007 Conference which will be held in Amsterdam on the 26th and 27th April 2007. ..."
Growth drugs don't fight aging, researchers find - Los Angeles Times"Human growth hormone injections do not increase life span or fitness, and have many potential adverse effects, including joint swelling and pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and a tendency toward diabetes, Stanford University researchers report today. ..."
Question of the Year - Nature Genetics "What would you do if it became possible to sequence the equivalent of a full human genome for only $1,000? Replies by Francis S. Collins, George Church, Stephen J. O'Brien, Evan Eichler, Jonathan Pritchard ..."
FDA's cloning report bypasses ethics, exposes European dilemma - Nature Biotechnology "As the FDA inches toward approving food products from cloned animals, the EU stays mute, setting up another potential trade conflict. ..."
news @ nature.com - Proposals for cow-human embryos put on hold - Chimaera experiments still on the table after authority avoids outright ban "British plans to create cloned human embryos that contain small amounts of cow DNA have been set back by about a year, after regulators decided to gauge public opinion before granting any licences. ..."
New syndrome reconciles theories of ageing: Nature Reviews Genetics "Is ageing merely the result of the accumulation of cellular damage over time, or is it genetically regulated? A new premature-ageing syndrome and a comparison of the transcriptomes of naturally and prematurely aged mice reconcile these two theories. ..."
PharmaLive: Illumina Unveils Industry's Most Comprehensive Whole-Genome DNA Analysis Solution "Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) today announced that the next BeadChip in its Infinium(R) product family will profile over one million diverse genetic variants. The new Human 1M BeadChip combines an unprecedented level of content for both whole-genome (WG) and copy number variation (CNV) analysis, along with additional unique, high-value genomic regions of interest - all on a single microarray chip. ..."
RedOrbit - Health - Analysis: Gene Tests Put Docs at Risk "The growth of personalized medicine -- treatment designed specifically for the genetic makeup of an individual -- could lead to a flood of new medical malpractice lawsuits, says a new report. ..."
HUMAN GENETICS: In Asians and Whites, Gene Expression Varies by Race -- Couzin 315 (5809): 173a -- Science "Do subtle differences in DNA between races really matter, medically speaking? Earlier this week, scientists described results from a new approach that may help answer that question: measuring gene expression levels among Caucasians and Asians. ..."
Seed: Scientists Develop Anti-cancer Chicken Eggs "British researchers have developed genetically modified chickens that can lay eggs which contain the proteins required to develop anti-cancer drugs, the BBC reported. ..."
Seed: First US Uterus Transplant Planned "A team led by Dr. Giuseppe Del Priore of New York Downtown Hospital were reviewing a number of women who hoped to restore their ability to have children after their own wombs were irreparably damaged by cancer, accidents or other causes ..."
The God of Small Things "Mapping the human genome wasn t enough. Now Craig Venter is trying to create a microbe that will free us from our addiction to oil. ..."
'Embryo Bank' Stirs Ethics Fears - washingtonpost.com "A Texas company has started producing batches of ready-made embryos that single women and infertile couples can order after reviewing detailed information about the race, education, appearance, personality and other characteristics of the egg and sperm donors. ..."
(2007). "The emperor's new clones." Nat Biotech 25(1): 1-1. "If regulators conclude that food from clones poses no more risk than food from other animals, the US and Europe could be on course for another biotech trade war. ..."
(2007). "The database revolution." Nature 445(7125): 229-230. "Funding agencies face conflicting challenges in supporting the databases essential to modern biology. Which strategies best support the collection, analysis and dissemination of large databases of related information? Do knowledge environments promote the aims of the funding agencies? At a meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, last month, it was clear that the NIH is struggling to find a middle road between two diametrically opposed approaches to the development of such databases. ..."
Bhatnagar, D. (2006). "Diagnosis and screening for familial hypercholesterolaemia: finding the patients, finding the genes." Ann Clin Biochem 43(Pt 6): 441-56. Screening could be carried out on a population basis, in a clinical setting or by application to relatives of probands. This latter approach, termed cascade testing, appears to be the more cost-effective compared with population screening and can be carried out using clinical criteria or genetic testing, or by a combination of both methods. Clinicians need to be made more aware of the clinical features of FH and how to diagnose it in order to increase the index of suspicion and instigate appropriate treatment early, with the aim of preventing premature coronary heart disease. ..."
Brody, H. and L. M. Hunt (2006). "BiDil: assessing a race-based pharmaceutical." Ann Fam Med 4(6): 556-60. "The scientific research leading to BiDil's approval tested the drug only in African American populations, apparently for commercial reasons, so the drug's efficacy in other populations is unknown. Race as a biological-medical construct is increasingly controversial; BiDil offers a good example of how sociocultural factors in disease causation may be overlooked as a result of an overly simplistic assumption of a racial and hence presumed genetic difference. Past discrimination and present disparities in health care involving African American patients are serious concerns, and we must welcome a treatment that promises to benefit a previously underserved group; yet the negative aspects of BiDil and the process that led to its discovery and marketing set an unfortunate precedent. Primary care physicians should be aware of possible generic equivalents that will affect the availability of this drug for low-income or uninsured patients. ..."
Collins, F. S. and T. A. Manolio (2007). "Merging and emerging cohorts: Necessary but not sufficient." Nature 445(7125): 259-259. "Certainly, assembling existing cohorts into a large consortium would provide a powerful resource for investigating genetic and environmental factors in health and disease. The argument that this method is likely to be less costly than a new cohort, and would yield results more quickly, carry considerable weight. But Willett et al. do not address all of the suboptimal aspects of this approach. Those should be clearly noted, lest expectations of such a consortium exceed what it is likely to deliver. ..."
Farndon, P. A. (2006). "Recording, using and sharing genetic information and test results: consent is the key in all medical specialties." Clin Med 6(3): 236-8.
Fuchs, M. (2006). "Gene therapy. An ethical profile of a new medical territory." J Gene Med 8(11): 1358-62."From early on, the possibility of genetic intervention in humans has been the subject of philosophical and ethical reflection in the scientific community. It became the object of public debate and parliamentary decision-making under the rule of law even before the first authorized trials on human subjects could start. This article explains why the debate on germ-line intervention and genetic enhancement is still ongoing. The focus is on somatic gene therapy. There is a political and academic consensus that it represents an adequate tool for a high-ranking end if some points are considered and taken into account. But where do we stand and what are the ethical conclusions we can draw from recent clinical experiences? ..."
Ghosh, D., M. A. Skinner, et al. (2007). "Pharmacogenomics and nutrigenomics: synergies and differences." Eur J Clin Nutr. "This review article provides an overview of synergies and differences between these two potentially powerful science areas. As further information is obtained on the importance of the interaction of food and the human genotype in disease prevention and health, pharmacogenomics can provide an opportunity driver for nutrigenomics. As we move from disease treatment to disease prevention, the two disciplines will become more closely aligned.. ...
Giordano, J., M. O'Reilly, et al. (2007). "Confidentiality and Autonomy: The Challenge(s) of Offering Research Participants a Choice of Disclosing Their Identity." Qualitative Health Research 17(2): 264-275 "In this article, the authors present one of the key ethical features of research: confidentiality as maintained by nondis-closure of participants' identities. In light of (a) the contingency that certain participants might vest interest in research studies through their identity and (b) the concept of respect for participants' autonomy, the authors consider the possibilities of offering research participants the choice of nonconfidentiality, afforded as an autonomous (negative) right of refusal of nondisclosure of identity. They address the issue that this possibility generates within the context(s) of current codes of ethics related to health research and the manifest responsibilities of the institutional review process. In this way, they attempt to elucidate potential benefits and consequences that arise from confidentiality and nonconfidentiality. ..."
Hoffman, S. and A. Podgurski (2007). "Securing the HIPAA Security Rule." Journal of Internet Law. "The threat to data security associated with the electronic storage and transmission of health information is serious enough that it has merited regulatory intervention, which came in the form of the HIPAA Security Rule, promulgated as part of the HIPAA Privacy Rule on April 20, 2005. Based on a close reading of the Security Rule and on empirical evidence, we argue that the Rule has thus far fallen far short of fulfilling its goal of safeguarding the security of electronic health information. This article briefly describes the provisions of the Security Rule and then offers a critique of it. It details the Rule's major shortcomings, emphasizing the many ways in which it fails to provide meaningful compliance guidance to covered entities. The article also develops recommendations for revisions to the Rule, focusing on a proposed “best practices” standard. ..."
Leshner, A. I. (2007). "Outreach Training Needed." Science 315(5809): 161. "There is a growing consensus that to lessen this tension, scientists must engage more fully with the public about scientific issues and the concerns that society has about them. Efforts that focus simply on increasing public understanding of science are not enough, because the problem is not merely a lack of scientific comprehension. In some cases, the public generally does understand scientific content in a fundamental way but still doesn't like it. ..."
Liu, H., D. M. Bravata, et al. (2007). "Systematic Review: The Safety and Efficacy of Growth Hormone in the Healthy Elderly." Annals of Internal Medicine 146(2): 104-115. "The literature published on randomized, controlled trials evaluating GH therapy in the healthy elderly is limited but suggests that it is associated with small changes in body composition and increased rates of adverse events. On the basis of this evidence, GH cannot be recommended as an antiaging therapy. ..."
Menikoff, J. Where's the Law? Uncovering the Truth About IRBs and Censorship, SSRN."Getting IRB approval of social and behavioral research studies should in the great majority of cases be a relatively non-burdensome task that is a minimal hindrance to the conduct of the research. That burden should rarely if ever rise to the level of triggering constitutional protections against censorship. Critics of the system would be better served by trying to improve the functioning of the IRB at their own institutions, and by working to enact appropriate changes to the regulations, than by throwing up the red flag of censorship. ..."
Prainsack, B. and T. D. Spector (2006). "Twins: A cloning experience." Soc Sci Med 63(10): 2739-52. "Without equating monozygotic twins directly with "clones", these results from "naturally" genetically identical individuals add a new dimension to what a future cloning situation could entail: The cloned person might possibly (a) perceive a close physical and emotional connection to the progenitor as a blessing; (b) suffer from preconceptions of people who regard physical likeness as a sign of incomplete individuality; and (c) perceive the idea of not having been born a clone of a particular person as unpleasant. ..."
Reed, E. D. (2006). "Property rights, genes, and common good." J Relig Ethics 34(1): 41-67. "This paper applies aspects of Hugo Grotius's theologically informed theory of property to contemporary issues concerning access to the human DNA sequence and patenting practices. It argues that Christians who contribute to public debate in these areas might beneficially employ some of the concepts with which he worked--notably "common right," the "right of necessity," and "use right." In the seventeenth century, wars were fought over trading rights and access to the sea. In the twenty-first century, information and intellectual property are the issues of the day. Grotius's writings serve to correct the overemphasis in modern liberalism on individual rights, and have practical application to the debate concerning the reduction of the human genome to the status of private property. ..."
Roff, D. A. (2007). "Contributions of genomics to life-history theory." Nat Rev Genet 8(2): 116-125. "Life-history theory seeks to understand the factors that produce variation in life histories that are found both among and within species. At the organismal level there is a well developed mathematical framework, and an important focus of the current research is determining the biological underpinnings of this framework, with particular attention to the causal mechanisms that underlie trade-offs. Genomic approaches are proving useful in addressing this issue. ..."
Salvioli, S., F. Olivieri, et al. (2006). "Genes, ageing and longevity in humans: problems, advantages and perspectives." Free Radic Res 40(12): 1303-23. " We review the main results regarding nuclear genes as well as the mitochondrial genome, focusing on the investigations performed on Italian centenarians, compared to those from other countries. These studies produced interesting results on many putative "longevity genes". Nevertheless, many discrepancies are reported, likely due to the population-specific interactions between gene pools and environment. New approaches, including large-scale studies using high-throughput techniques, are urgently needed to overcome the limits of traditional association studies performed on a limited number of polymorphisms in order to make substantial progress to disentangle the genetics of a trait as complex as human longevity. ..."
Samardzija, M. R. (2007). "SCIENCE AND LAW: The Obvious War." Science 315(5809): 190-191. "The war is over what inventions are patentable. Although the particular patent at issue claims an adjustable pedal assembly, the parties assembling for the battle are "high tech"--semiconductor companies, software companies, telecommunication companies--versus "health care"--pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, universities. Each side has professed that its very existence is at stake. ..."
Suk, J., A. Bruce, et al. (2007). "Dolly for dinner? Assessing commercial and regulatory trends in cloned livestock." Nat Biotech 25(1): 47-53. "As cloning technologies become more widely established, will products enter the food chain sooner than regulatory agencies and the public might be prepared for? ..."
Sykes, B. (2007). Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland."Through a systematic, ten-year DNA survey of more than 10,000 volunteers, Bryan Sykes has traced the true genetic makeup of British Islanders and their descendants. This historical travelogue and genetic tour of the fabled isles, which includes accounts of the Roman invasions and Norman conquests, takes readers from the Pontnewydd cave in North Wales, where a 300,000-year-old tooth was discovered, to the resting place of "The Red Lady" of Paviland, whose anatomically modern body was dyed with ochre by her grieving relatives nearly 29,000 years ago. ..."
Terry, S. F., P. F. Terry, et al. (2007). "Advocacy groups as research organizations: the PXE International example." Nat Rev Genet 8(2): 157-164. "Advocacy organizations for genetic diseases are increasingly becoming involved in biomedical research, particularly translational research, in order to meet the needs of the individuals that they serve. PXE International, an advocacy organization for the disease pseudoxanthoma elasticum, provides an example of how research can be accelerated by these groups. It has adopted methods that were pioneered by other advocacy organizations, and has integrated these along with new approaches into franchizable elements. The model has been followed for other conditions and has led to the establishment of a common infrastructure to enable advocacy groups to initiate, conduct and accelerate research. ..."
Willett, W. C., W. J. Blot, et al. (2007). "Merging and emerging cohorts: Not worth the wait." Nature 445(7125): 257-258. "How best to study the effects of genes and environment on US health? In the first of two commentaries, Walter C. Willett and his co-authors argue that investing in existing studies is the most efficient approach. ..."
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