CENTER DOCUMENTS

This Week in CGREAL

2007-01-31

Center News * Opportunities * Events * Genetics in the News * Genetics in the Literature * Archive

* The current newsletter can also be viewed at http://www.case.edu/med/bioethics/cgreal/newsletters.htm

Center News

• Applications for the 2007 seed grant program are due March 30, 2007. For more information, email Jennifer Fishman. 
• Applications for the Post-doctoral program are due April 1, 2007.  For more information, email Jennifer Fishman.

Opportunities

Please contact Eric Juengst if you are submitting an abstract or are interested in a coordinated CGREAL submission. 

Complete list of funding, conference, and publication opportunities

Events Around the Center ...

And Elsewhere ...

Genetics in the News

WIRED Blogs: Seattle Blood Bank Helps Self to Your DNA "If you plan to donate to a local blood bank, be warned. Your blood may not be the only thing that gets collected: For the first time, the Puget Sound Blood Center will begin collecting, testing and storing the DNA of blood donors. ..."

Genetic tests may bring hope, inspire fear - CNN.com "Genetic testing can help predict many diseases and one day may help prevent them, but privacy concerns and fears of abuse could derail the technology's potential. ..."

Harvard Political Review - Failing The Test "After more than ten years, Congress is finally debating comprehensive legislation on the problem of genetic discrimination in the form of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. ..."

Many Genetic-Based Cancer Studies Flawed - Yahoo! News "Many cancer studies that rely on what scientists call genetic microarrays have critical flaws in their analyses or their conclusions. ..."

ADVANCE for Managers of Respiratory Care | Editorial "They came from the land of ice and snow, carrying the Hammer of the Gods, and a genetic freckle, alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency. ..."

Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted): Genetically Engineered Chickens Lay Golden Eggs "However, some researchers have decided that chickens can be desirable protein drug factories because they are small, inexpensive and have rapid generation times. Further, chickens could produce neat packages -- eggs -- that are loaded with these desired protein drugs. ..."

NIH VideoCasting :Ethics of Informing Estranged Family Members of Genetic Risks

ASU Web Devil - Havasupais gaining support in suit against ASU "While trial proceedings are at a standstill, an American Indian tribe suing ASU and the Arizona Board of Regents is gaining national support from other American Indian groups. Thirteen tribes in Arizona and California have passed resolutions in support of the Havasupai tribe, which claims ASU researchers used tribal blood samples, fingerprints and handprints for unauthorized research. ..."

Bioethics Forum - The President s Proposal for Genetic Discrimination Misses the Point "Unfortunately, there is reason to doubt that GINA will prevent much discrimination from occurring. ..."

Pharmacogenetics in assisted reproduction: optimizing response to ovarian stimulation "A growing body of evidence is supporting the production of a patient-specific gene profile that identifies relevant SNPs to aid in fertility drug dosing. ..."

News: Web-Based Genomics Tool Designed to Help Predict Disease Susceptibility . Genetic Engineering News - Biotechnology from Bench to Business "A new gene information resource designed to aid biomedical researchers in more effectively identifying small alterations in the human genome that are associated with individuals' susceptibility to disease has been established. ..."

Experts Provide Model Language to Help Clinical Researchers Disclose Financial Conflicts of Interests "Facing a wide range of practices on how financial conflicts of interest are disclosed to potential clinical research participants, experts at Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, and Wake Forest University have published new language designed to help clinical researchers better disclose their financial interests in research. ..."

GINA, aGAIN - Nature Genetics "Legislation to prevent genetic discrimination in employment and insurance decisions is essential so that individuals can make use of existing genetic tests to manage their own health decisions. This legislation is also imperative to protect those who volunteer for genetic research that will benefit others affected by common diseases. ..."

Personalized medicine and quantitative trait transcripts - Nature Genetics "A new study identifies 'quantitative trait transcripts' for nicotine resistance in large populations of wild strains of Drosophila melanogaster by comparing global gene expression patterns, survival time and metabolite levels in the presence or absence of nicotine. The results provide proof-of-concept for a correlation-based statistical approach that can be used in personalized medicine. ..."

Crunch time for multiple-gene tests : Article : Nature "Sophisticated new genetic tests face an uncertain future unless they can win clear-cut approval from regulators, insurers and, most importantly, doctors. Virginia Gewin reports. ..."

Evolutionary biologyGenetics and bisexuality : Article : Nature "A population-genetic model indicates that if there is a gene responsible for homosexual behaviour it can readily spread in populations. The model also predicts widespread bisexuality in humans. ..."

A Convenient Truth - New York Times "CAN it be ethical for a young girl to be treated with hormones so she will remain below normal height and weight, to have her uterus removed and to have surgery on her breasts so they will not develop? ..."

Someone (Other Than You) May Own Your Genes - New York Times "Yet equally important as risk and more often overlooked are the public s equally real and unaddressed concerns about who is looking out for its interests as the genes of plants, animals and microbes, as well as entire organisms, become privatized through the patenting system. ..."

Of Gay Sheep, Modern Science and Bad Publicity - New York Times "Charles Roselli set out to discover what makes some sheep gay. Then the news media and the blogosphere got hold of the story. ..."

Technology Review: Eating According to Your Genome "If you knew that you were especially susceptible to heart disease when you gained weight, would it increase your motivation to diet? How much would you be willing to pay to find out if you are one of the lucky people who can eat as much fat as you want and not have an increased risk of heart disease? Such tests are the goal of nutrigenomics, which seeks to identify the links between nutrition and disease based on an individual's genome. ..."

The Scientist : UK delays hybrid embryo decision "Embryology regulator won't make resolution on whether or not to permit research on human-animal hybrids until autumn, to the relief of many scientists ..."

ThinkGeek :: DIY Blood Typing Test Kit "Just a little prick (no jokes, please), a few drops of blood, a little water, and the special card are all you need to find out what blood type you are. ..."

Yorkshireman found to share DNA with African tribes | News | This is London "John Revis has always considered himself a true Yorkshireman who was proud of his ancestry. But he has been forced to confront an entirely different heritage - after scientists uncovered that he has exactly the same DNA imprint as a tribe of African warriors. ...

Genetics in the Literature

Bernstein, G. The Paradoxes of Technological Diffusion: Genetic Discrimination and Internet Privacy, SSRN." New technologies often cause social controversies by creating novel privacy threats. Academics and legal decision-makers seeking to resolve these controversies have traditionally focused on the appropriate measures to protect privacy. Yet, traditional thinking ignored the relationship between privacy pressures and a technology's diffusion process. In this Article, I examine controversies involving privacy and two recent technological innovations—genetic testing and the Internet through the privacy-diffusion prism. ..."

Abecasis, G., P. K.-H. Tam, et al. (2007). "Human Genome Variation 2006: emerging views on structural variation and large-scale SNP analysis." Nat Genet 39(2): 153-155. "The eighth annual Human Genome Variation Meeting was held in September 2006 in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. The meeting highlighted recent advances in characterization of genetic variation, including genome-wide association studies and structural variation. ..."

Aliyu, M. H., M. E. Calkins, et al. (2006). "Project among African-Americans to explore risks for schizophrenia (PAARTNERS): recruitment and assessment methods." Schizophr Res 87(1-3): 32-44. "The Project among African-Americans to Explore Risks for Schizophrenia (PAARTNERS) is a multi-site, NIMH-funded study that seeks to identify genetic polymorphisms that confer susceptibility to schizophrenia among African-Americans by linkage mapping and targeted association analyses. Because deficits in certain dimensions of cognitive ability are thought to underlie liability to schizophrenia, the project also examines cognitive abilities in individuals affected by schizophrenia and their extended family members. This article describes PAARTNERS study design, ascertainment methods and preliminary sample characteristics.. ..."

Ansari, M. and M. Krajinovic (2007). "Pharmacogenomics in cancer treatment defining genetic bases for inter-individual differences in responses to chemotherapy." Curr Opin Pediatr 19(1): 15-22. "This article will give an update on the genetic basis of variable therapeutic responses to anticancer agents in children. Interindividual differences in drug responses are an important cause of resistance to treatment and adverse drug reactions. Pharmacogenetics tends to identify the genetic basis of these suboptimal responses allowing traditional treatment to be complemented by genotype-based drug dose adjustment. ..."

Aquilante, C. L., I. Zineh, et al. (2006). "Common laboratory methods in pharmacogenomics studies." Am J Health Syst Pharm 63(21): 2101-10."PURPOSE: Common laboratory methods used in pharmacogenomics studies are described. An understanding of the common genotyping methods used in pharmacogenomics studies, including PCR-RFLP analysis, pyrosequencing, TaqMan, mass spectrometry, and DHPLC, will aid pharmacy practitioners and students when interpreting the methods sections of such studies. ..."

Bickeboller, H. (2007). "The National Genome Research Network. Genome research in Germany." Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. "In 2001 Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMFM) initiated the National Genome Research Network (NGFN). The goals of the NGFN are the investigation of the molecular basis of common diseases to improve new methods for prevention, diagnosis and therapy. The disease-oriented genome networks investigate cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diseases of the nervous system, diseases due to environmental factors and infection, and inflammation. They are supported by technological platforms and a component for technology transfer. The explicit aims include better integration of public health research and economy in order to gain an efficient economical and technological utilisation and application in community health. This article describes the creation of the NGFN in the context of international and national genome research, shows the structure and content of the NGFN and gives examples for NGFN research in networks on a highly, internationally recognised level. ..."

Damm, R. (2007). "Genetic diagnostics as a legislation project. Regulatory initiatives and main areas of regulation." Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. "The German legislators cannot only build on the preparatory work of political advisory institutions and commissions; besides current legislation in neighbouring countries, several regulatory drafts have been prepared in Germany, which provide important normative material for legis lative work. However, these drafts also reflect the conflicts of interest and assessment arising from such a project. Legislation on genetic diagnostics is not only concerned with differing focal points of regulation and numerous questions of detail but also with decisions on fundamental normative orientations and principles of regulation. ..."

Eggert, K., U. Wullner, et al. (2007). "Data protection in biomaterial banks for Parkinson's disease research: The model of GEPARD (Gene bank Parkinson's Disease Germany)." Mov Disord. "The German Competence Network on Parkinson's disease (CNP) initiated the Gene Bank Parkinson's Disease Germany (GEPARD), providing an administrative and scientific infrastructure for the storage of DNA and clinical data that are electronically accessible and protective of patient rights. In this article, we offer guidance on how to establish a framework for a clinical genetic data and DNA bank, and describe GEPARD as a model that may be useful to other local, national, and international research groups developing similar programs. (c) 2006 Movement Disorder Society. ..."

Fernandez, C. V. and C. Weijer (2006). "Obligations in offering to disclose genetic research results." Am J Bioeth 6(6): 44-6; author reply W10-2.

Goldenfeld, N. and C. Woese (2007). "Biology's next revolution." Nature 445(7126): 369-369. "The emerging picture of microbes as gene-swapping collectives demands a revision of such concepts as organism, species and evolution itself. ..."

Hodge, A. E., R. B. Altman, et al. (2007). "The PharmGKB: integration, aggregation, and annotation of pharmacogenomic data and knowledge." Clin Pharmacol Ther 81(1): 21-4. "The Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base, PharmGKB (http://www.pharmgkb.org), curates pharmacogenetic and pharmacogenomic information to generate knowledge concerning the relationships among genes, drugs, and diseases, and the effects of gene variation on these relationships. PharmGKB curators collect information on genotype-phenotype relationships both from the literature and from the deposition of primary research data into our database. Their goal is to catalyze pharmacogenetic and pharmacogenomic research. ..."

Hopkins, M. M. and P. A. Martin (2006). "Role of pharmacogenetics in the use of CNS drugs: from drug pipeline to primary care?" Expert Rev Neurother 6(12): 1765-7.

Lavieri, R. R. and S. A. Garner (2006). "Ethical considerations in the communication of unexpected information with clinical implications." Am J Bioeth 6(6): 46-8; author reply W10-2.

Roter, D., L. Ellington, et al. (2006). "The Genetic Counseling Video Project (GCVP): models of practice." Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet 142(4): 209-20. " This study addresses the question by documenting, on videotape, the practices of a national sample of prenatal and cancer genetic counselors (GCs) providing routine pre-test counseling to simulated clients (SCs). Both the teaching and counseling models seem to be represented in routine practice and predict variation in client satisfaction, affective demeanor, and nonverbal effectiveness. ..."

Royse, S. D. (2006). "Implications of genetic testing for sudden cardiac death syndrome." Br J Nurs 15(20): 1104-7. "This article addresses some of the clinical and ethical implications for nurses caring for families who may be at risk of an inherited sudden cardiac death syndrome. Nursing practice implications are discussed, concluding that more research is needed to explore how family members cope with genetic information which will shape the provision of future genetic healthcare. ..."

Sharp, R. R. and M. W. Foster (2006). "Clinical utility and full disclosure of genetic results to research participants." Am J Bioeth 6(6): 42-4; author reply W10-2.

Spector, D. (2007). "Lifestyle behaviors in women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutation: an exploratory study guided by concepts derived from the Health Belief Model." Cancer Nurs 30(1): E1-10. "The aims of this qualitative pilot study were to explore current lifestyle practices among these women and to assess perceptions regarding risk as well as perceived benefits and perceived barriers to engage in healthy behaviors. The findings reveal that there is a need for nursing interventions that may improve education and enhance motivation regarding potential lifestyle risk-reduction behaviors in women with a genetic predisposition for breast and ovarian cancer. ..."

Spielman, R. S., L. A. Bastone, et al. (2007). "Common genetic variants account for differences in gene expression among ethnic groups." Nat Genet 39(2): 226-231. "The results show that specific genetic variation among populations contributes appreciably to differences in gene expression phenotypes. As some of these are probably influenced by the level of gene expression, our results suggest that allele frequency differences at regulatory polymorphisms also account for some population differences in prevalence of complex diseases. ..."

Tassicker, R. J., P. K. Marshall, et al. (2006). "Predictive and pre-natal testing for Huntington Disease in Australia: results and challenges encountered during a 10-year period (1994-2003)." Clin Genet 70(6): 480-9. "This study summarizes 10-years' experience of predictive and pre-natal testing and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for Huntington disease (HD) in Australia. The identified issues highlight the importance of the protocols for predictive testing and indicate that extension of the international guidelines published in 1994 may be timely. ..."

Zeps, N., B. J. Iacopetta, et al. (2007). "Waiver of individual patient consent in research: when do potential benefits to the community outweigh private rights?" The Medical Journal of Australia(31 January 2007). "In this article, we present a case study involving a heritable disease for which there is a preventive and effective course of treatment available. Like a great deal of research today, the distinction between basic research and refining clinical practice was somewhat blurred. We suggest this work is “health services” research, as it seeks to analyse and provide a means to improve on a clinical service already in existence. Two major issues arise from this work: the need for waiver of consent to perform screening of colorectal cancer cases for a marker of risk of disease; and the mechanism by which to contact patients or their families who fall within a “high-risk” category. ..."

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