U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling - New York Times "The Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of DNA from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities, a vast expansion of DNA gathering that will include hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, by far the largest group affected. ..."
ABC News: Medical Mystery: Genetic Secret to a Long Life? "Despite indulging in an artery-clogging diet that could make even an Italian grandmother cringe, the 400 or so residents of tiny Stoccareddo, Italy, have virtually no heart disease or diabetes, and often live into their 90s. ..."
ABC News: Scientists Debunk So-Called 'Fat Gene' "So, while you may be having a hard time fitting into your favorite jeans, it's unlikely that your genes are to blame. ..."
Four questions on resveratrol and other anti-aging drugs - Jan. 31, 2007 "Great! So I'll live to 250? No. And four more clear answers to obvious questions about anti-aging drugs. ..."
'Be nice, be thin, have daughters' | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books "If it were an ordinary disease it would be called a plague, a pandemic, and epic public-health plans would be drawn up. So why aren't we devoting more of our resources to finding a cure for this one? Because it's old age. ..."
Scientists craft embryonic stem cell ethics rules | Reuters.com "New international guidelines on human embryonic stem cell research called for close scrutiny of scientists and clear consent from people donating cells, but did not settle the issue of paying women who donate eggs. ..."
BBC NEWS | Health | Branson to launch stem-cell bank "Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson is set to launch a company which will let families bank and store stem cells from their child's umbilical cord. ..."
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | DNA clue to presidential puzzle"DNA tests carried out on two British men have shed light on a mystery surrounding the ancestry of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president. ..."
Film Director Spike Lee Kick Off Black History Month This February with a New Awareness Spot on How Viewers Can Determine Their African Ancestry "VH1 Soul is kicking off Black History Month this February with a new awareness spot directed by acclaimed producer/writer/director Spike Lee for SpikeDDB p ..."
ACOG Opposes Sex Selection for Family Planning Purposes "Helping patients to choose the sex of their offspring to avoid serious sex-linked genetic disorders is considered ethical for doctors, but participating in sex selection for personal and family reasons, such as family balancing, is not, according to an opinion issued today by the Committee on Ethics of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). ..."
Bioethics Forum - Cosmo Lotto "In books and articles I have written on just access to biomedical enhancement, I lament the likelihood that only wealthier individuals would be able to afford enhancements that might give them significant social advantages. I have suggested that one way to help preserve a belief in equality of opportunity might be to operate a lottery. ..."
Conflicting attitudes hinder participation in clinical trials "Women have conflicting attitudes about participating in clinical trials because of uncertainties about trusting the experimenters, fear of the trial itself, and hope that the research will result in medical progress, according to a new study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. ..."
Scientists should adopt codes of ethics, scientist-bioethicist says "The time is ripe for scientific organizations to adopt codes of ethics, according to a scientist and bioethicist from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in the current issue of Science and Engineering Ethics. ..."
Researchers find link between food odors and lifespan in fruit flies "Researchers hoping to learn why organisms tend to live longer if their intake of calories is restricted have made a startling discovery in fruit flies, just the smell of food can have a negative effect on longevity. ..."
Pills or papayas? Survey finds Americans want healthful foods, not more medicines "If you thought Americans would rather pop a pill to treat illness than make major diet changes, think again. A new survey shows the vast majority would rather change their diets including trying a vegetarian diet than use medicines. ..."
European Federation of Biotechnology and Elsevier announce launch of biotechnology journal "Elsevier will launch Biotechnology, the Journal, as the official publication of the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) in September 2007. Biotechnology, the Journal will be a cross-disciplinary research and review journal aimed at an audience of academic and commercial bioscientists who are interested not only in science but also in its translation and use. ..."
FISH-ing for links between cancer and aging "Wielding a palette of chromosome paints, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have taken a step closer to understanding the relationship between aging and cancer by visualizing chromosomes of cells from patients with a heritable premature aging disease known as Werner Syndrome. ..."
Vitamins: Science doesn't always match policy "Some one hundred years after the first vitamin was named, what is known about them has not translated into beneficial, standardized recommendations for public health ..."
Parents' genes, not parents' arguing, may cause children's conduct problems "Now a new study finds that parents' fighting may not be to blame but rather that parents who argue a lot may pass on genes for disruptive behavior to their children. ..."
Fighting influenza & co. with 40,000 blood samples "What is more, the flu vaccine is not as effective with this risk group as it is with younger people. The reason for this is that with age the fire power of the immune system is reduced. Why this is the case is largely unknown. An international EU project led by the University of Bonn is now starting which aims at shedding light on this. Among other things, the researchers want to get a step closer to solving this riddle by examining tens of thousands of blood samples ..."
Horse genome assembled "The first draft of the horse genome sequence has been deposited in public databases and is freely available for use by biomedical and veterinary researchers around the globe ..."
The First DNA-Based Diagnostic Test to Identify Canine Breeds. "MMI Genomics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MetaMorphix, Inc., announced today the launch of the first commercial, DNA-based, diagnostic test that can genetically determine the breed composition of dogs. ..."
Homo Futurus: How Radically Should We Remake Ourselves - Or Our Children? | The Huffington Post "Futurists see a conflict forming over our dominion over the human body, and over the choices we make about our biological future - and that of our children. Some call it a clash between "bioliberals" and "bioconservatives," and frame it as a debate over individual rights. ..."
Reproductive medicineThe first cut : Article : Nature "Extracting a cell from a budding human embryo can expose genetic defects, but does it actually help generate more healthy babies? ..."
Research on Tasmanian bones raises a number of ethical questions : Article : Nature "Your News story about the repatriation of Tasmanian bones ("Aboriginal remains head for home" Nature 444, 411; 2006) largely ignores the ethics of scientific investigation of these remains ..."
For better or for worse"Elof Axel Carlson is a geneticist by training who has taught biology to non-science students for many years. In his thought-provoking book Times of Triumph, Times of Doubt, he asks why many of his young students who have turned away from careers in science feel that "science has let them down through its bad outcomes". ..."
US proposal to expand access to untested drugs draws fire - Nature Medicine "Should those who are sick or dying and have exhausted all other options be able to try drugs that haven't yet been approved? The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seems to think so and in December proposed a controversial scheme to help people get the drugs they need. ..."
Supplement makers face bitter pill - Nature Medicine "The Dietary Supplement and Nonprescription Drug Consumer Protection Act, signed into law in December, and largely supported by the industry, requires companies to report adverse reactions to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but puts the onus on the agency to prove that a supplement is unsafe. ..."
Safeguarding clinical trials - Nature Medicine "Efforts are underway to modernize clinical trial standards and normalize regulations to facilitate international collaboration. But as the European Union's Clinical Trials Directive shows, a one-size-fits-all regulatory strategy may be easier to conceive than to implement. ..."
Non-invasive Down's syndrome test shows promise New Scientist "A simple blood test taken by a pregnant woman could reveal genetic abnormalities such as Down s syndrome in her developing fetus, scientists say, removing the need for some invasive tests. ..."
The antioxidant myth: a medical fairy tale - New Scientist "According to some estimates around half the adults in the US take antioxidant pills daily in the belief they promote good health and stave off disease. We have become antioxidant devotees. But are they doing us any good? Evidence gathered over the past few years shows that at best, antioxidant supplements do little or nothing to benefit our health. At worst, they may even have the opposite effect, promoting the very problems they are supposed to stamp out. ..."
F.D.A. Widens Safety Reviews on New Drugs - The New York Times "The Food and Drug Administration announced changes intended to ensure that marketed drugs are as safe as advertised. ..."
Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine s Greatest Lifesaver. - Books - Review - New York Times "Yet, as Arthur Allen makes clear in Vaccine, a timely, fair-minded and crisply written account of medicine s greatest lifesaver, not everyone welcomed Jenner s feat. Criticism came quickly, often in apocalyptic terms. ..."
ScienceDaily: Uncovering Natural Products From Mystery 'Orphan Genes' "Microorganisms have a proven track record for producing powerful molecules useful in antibiotics, as anticancer agents, and in treating human diseases. ..."
Probing the Roots of Race and Cancer -- Science "African-American women are more likely to develop Aggressive breast tumors than are Caucasians, Funmi Olopade is trying to understand why ..."
The Buck Institute's Jim Kovach on extending our health span "Kovach, who is both a physician and lawyer, is president and COO of the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato. ..."
Roman descendants found in China? | International News | News | Telegraph "Residents of a remote Chinese village are hoping that DNA tests will prove one of history's most unlikely legends that they are descended from Roman legionaries lost in antiquity. ..."
Black, M. L., C. A. Wise, et al. (2006). "Combining genetics and population history in the study of ethnic diversity in the People's Republic of China." Hum Biol 78(3): 277-93. "In the present study we investigated the ancestry and genetic diversity of nine populations: the majority Han of Liaoning Province; the Miao, Yao, Kucong, and Tibetan communities of Yunnan Province in southwest China; and four Muslim populations, the Hui, Bonan, Dongxiang, and Sala from central and northern China. However, we encountered interpretive problems in terms of the definition of the present-day ethnic study populations in China, which appear to reflect past and present political as well as genetic influences. ..."
Bondy, B. and I. Spellmann (2007). "Pharmacogenetics of antipsychotics: useful for the clinician?" Curr Opin Psychiatry 20(2): 126-30. "This article reviews recent advances in this field with respect to their importance for the clinician. Despite much effort, only a few of the results are now ready for translation into clinical practice. Cytochrome P450 genotyping would be a big step forward towards a more individualized drug treatment based on molecular diagnostics and could improve treatment, reduce adverse effects and increase compliance of the patients. Another promising field may be that of predicting the antipsychotic-induced weight gain and it is hoped that commercially available DNA tests may be available within the next few years. Prediction of response is still hampered by many methodological and clinical problems and is not yet available to the clinician. ..."
Daly, A. K. (2007). "Individualized drug therapy." Curr Opin Drug Discov Devel 10(1): 29-36. "The pharmacogenetics of either individual patients or tumors has been used to aid the progress of personalized medicine to generate antitumor drugs (eg, trastuzamab and erlotinib) that are active against tumors expressing particular growth factor receptors. Outside the field of cancer therapeutics, pharmacogenetic tests have been introduced to detect patient genotypes with the aim of individualizing existing treatments.Studies on genes encoding drug receptors in relation to individualized prescription have been limited but there is increasing information on the relationship between response to beta2-adrenoceptor agonists and the genotype for the beta2-adrenoceptor gene. The introduction of pharmacogenetic tests into routine healthcare requires both a demonstration of cost-effectiveness and the availability of appropriate accessible testing systems. ..."
Galletti, M. (2006). "Begetting, cloning and being human: two national commission reports against human cloning from Italy and the U.S.A." HEC Forum 18(2): 156-71.
Gross, L. (2007). "Stem Cell Promise, Interrupted: How Long Do US Researchers Have to Wait?" PLoS Biology 5(1): e32.
McGinniss, M. J., R. Chen, et al. (2007). "Development of a web-based query tool for quality assurance of clinical molecular genetic test results." J Mol Diagn 9(1): 95-8. "A web-based query tool application for clinical molecular genetic test results was developed to plot dynamically and display genotype and/or allele frequencies for any time period. This tool is used to produce plots of all high-volume molecular genetic assays (>50 samples per month). . ..."
Schulte In den Baumen, T. (2007). "Human genetic data from a data protection law perspective." Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz."A balance between the information needs of society and the right to privacy requires a medically driven criteria. The medical term of indication which corresponds with the data protection term of purpose should serve as a tool in order to balance the rights of the patients and their relatives or between clients and third persons involved. Some countries have set up new legislative acts to address the challenges of human genetics. The current state of German data protection law leaves citizen rather unprotected as long as the data are used for medical purposes in a wider sense. A special law on the collection of genetic data has been discussed for several years, but it should be questioned whether the scope of a sector-specific law would serve citizens better. It seems to be preferable to adjust the existing Data Protection Act rather than drafting a specific law which covers the field of human genetics. This adaptation should reflect upon the different technical ways in which genetic data are collected and used. ..."
v, B. H. J., I. Iachine, et al. (2006). "Genetic influence on human lifespan and longevity." Hum Genet 119(3): 312-21. "We study the genetic influence on human lifespan and how it varies with age using the almost extinct cohorts of Danish, Finnish and Swedish twins born between 1870 and 1910 comprising 20,502 individuals followed until 2003-2004. While the estimated overall strength of genetic influence is compatible with previous studies, we find that genetic influences on lifespan are minimal prior to age 60 but increase thereafter. These findings provide a support for the search for genes affecting longevity in humans, especially at advanced ages. ..."
Wolff, K., W. Brun, et al. (2007). "Confidentiality versus duty to inform - An empirical study on attitudes towards the handling of genetic information." American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A 143A(2): 142-148. "We set out to investigate whether potential relatives want to be informed about the existence of hereditary conditions within their family and tinder which conditions they want healthcare providers to breach confidentiality to inform them. Results show that a majority of participants wished to be informed about the existence of a hereditary disease within their family. The desire to he informed and the acceptability of breaches of confidentiality were predicted by the treatability of the disease, uncertainty avoidance, and age, but not by self-efficacy or worry. (c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. ..."
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