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Kaleidoscope 2009 wk 47Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Kaleidoscope is a new series, with a “kaleidoscope” of facts, findings, views and news gathered over the last 1-2 weeks. Most items originate from Twitter, my Google Reader (RSS) and sometimes real articles (yeah!). I read a lot, I bookmark a lot, but only some of those things end op in a post. Since tweets have [...] (Source: Laika's MedLibLog)
Source: Laika's MedLibLog - November 19, 2009 Category: Medical Librarians Authors: laikaspoetnik Tags: Kaleidoscope Medical Grand Round Medical/Clinical stuff Pharmaceutical Industry Research Web 2.0 Breast Cancer Screening Education Genetics Grand Rounds Health Medicine twitter Twitter Tools Source Type: blogs

Agenda for Personalized Medicine: AnswersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A few weeks ago, Pauline C. Ng, Sarah S. Murray, Samuel Levy and J. Craig Venter published a quite an interesting piece in the October 8, 2009 issue of Nature. In this publication, they had really relevant suggestions for Direct-to-consumer genomics companies such as Navigenics or 23andMe. Now, surprisingly, they two giants published an answer together: Dear Editor: We read with interest the Opinion piece entitled “An agenda for personalized medicine” in the October 8, 2009 edition of Nature. Our two companies, though commercially distinct with differentiated products, would like to respond to this piece jointly to s...
Source: ScienceRoll - November 18, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó Tags: Genetic testing Genome genetics Source Type: blogs

Oxytocin Receptor Variants Linked To EmpathyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a sample of 200 students those with two copies of a particular allele of an oxytocin receptor appear to be better at reading emotional state in others. CORVALLIS, Ore. Researchers have discovered a genetic variation that may contribute to how empathetic a human is, and how that person reacts to stress. In the first study of its kind, a variation in the hormone/neurotransmitter oxytocin's receptor was linked to a person's ability to infer the mental state of others. Interestingly, this same genetic variation also related to stress reactivity. These findings could have a significant impact in adding to the body of know...
Source: FuturePundit - November 17, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Brain Genetics Source Type: blogs

Mice with deleted gene less anxious, depressedEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Graeme Baldwin - BioMed Central Removing the PKCI/HINT1 gene from mice has an antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like effect. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience applied a battery of behavioral tests to the PKCI/HINT1 knockout animals, concluding that the deleted gene may have an important role in mood regulation. Elisabeth Barbier and Jia Bei Wang, from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland, USA, carried out the experiments to investigate the role of the gene in regulating mood function. Wang, the corresponding author of the paper, said, "The knockout mice displayed behaviors ind...
Source: Latest entries from www.anxietyinsights.info - November 16, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Anxiety Insights Tags: genetics Source Type: blogs

European Personalised Medicine Diagnostics AssociationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We all know about the Personalised Medicine Coalition: The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) is an independent, non-profit group that works to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine for the ultimate benefit of patients. Our diverse members work together to educate opinion leaders and the public about the issues that will shape how personalized medicine develops — and how quickly all of us can benefit from it. Now I was glad to see the European Personalised Medicine Diagnostics Association just launched as reported by GenomeWeb. Made up of biotechnology firms, academic and institutional resear...
Source: ScienceRoll - November 15, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó Tags: Genetic testing Genome genetics Source Type: blogs

What if fitness & migration were random?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions/Significance As has previously been shown with selection, the role of migration in evolution is determined by the entire distributions of immigration and emigration rates, not just by the mean values. The interactions of stochastic migration with stochastic selection produce evolutionary processes that are invisible to deterministic evolutionary theory. Complexity is the name of the game. In the paper Rice doesn't apologize for the near impenetrability of the alphabet soup, since the Price Equation is derived from first prinicples he asserts that if the axioms lead to complexity it is not nearly as undesirabl...
Source: Gene Expression - November 12, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

Spengler does it again!Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Just Spengler (David Goldman) being Spengler, From "Zionism is Racism" to "Judaism is Racism":Judaism has nothing to do with race-there are Jews of every race-but it does have to do with family. Jews are members of Abraham's family. Not only tradition, but a great deal of DNA evidence support this claim. To insist that Jews adopt the criterion of "belief" for membership is to rule that God must act in accordance with a human court's notion of the permissible range of God's behavior. No wonder the Reform Jews and the British Humanist Association support this.1) Yes, Jews are genetically distinct.2) But, they are also the pr...
Source: Gene Expression - November 10, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Jewish Genetics Source Type: blogs

TCHH & curly hair in EuropeansEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Common Variants in the Trichohyalin Gene Are Associated with Straight Hair in Europeans:Hair morphology is highly differentiated between populations and among people of European ancestry. Whereas hair morphology in East Asian populations has been studied extensively, relatively little is known about the genetics of this trait in Europeans. We performed a genome-wide association scan for hair morphology (straight, wavy, curly) in three Australian samples of European descent. All three samples showed evidence of association implicating the Trichohyalin gene (TCHH), which is expressed in the developing inner root sheath of th...
Source: Gene Expression - November 9, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Population genetics Source Type: blogs

The quest for common variants & cognitionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A genome-wide study of common SNPs and CNVs in cognitive performance in the CANTAB:Psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia are commonly accompanied by cognitive impairments that are treatment resistant and crucial to functional outcome. There has been great interest in studying cognitive measures as endophenotypes for psychiatric disorders, with the hope that their genetic basis will be clearer. To investigate this, we performed a genome-wide association study involving 11 cognitive phenotypes from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. We showed these measures to be heritable by comparing the correla...
Source: Gene Expression - November 8, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: IQ Association Population genetics Source Type: blogs

Unitary mindfulness in collective actionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In reviewing a paper which sketches out the boundary conditions under which group-level natural selection would result in the emergence of altruism as a genetically encoded trait, I stated: ... I would look to cultural group selection, because there are many cases of women being assimilated into a dominant culture, and their offspring speaking the language, and expressing the values, in totality of their fathers. One inherits 50% of one's genes from one's mother and one's father, but inheritance of cultural traits which are distinctive between parents may show very strong biases. Partitioning variance between and within gr...
Source: Gene Expression - November 8, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

Goodbye Genetics, Hello EpigeneticsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
For the first time in history, science now has tools that can definitively answer long-standing questions about the role of genetics as the cause of diseases. So far, the results have been devastating for believers in genetic causality. The better we can see, the less genetic causality we find. I've previously summarized the minimalist findings of modern genetics research for a number of psychiatric disorders, including addiction, here and here in this blog, and in my book, Empowering Your Sober Self. Now comes another blockbuster study, this time of schizophrenia, a disease commonly believed to ...
Source: New Recovery - November 8, 2009 Category: Addiction Tags: Addiction Research Genetics Source Type: blogs

What does not kill the group, makes it stronger!Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I recently finished reading The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures, a new book by Nicholas Wade, a science writer for The New York Times. Before giving it the "full treatment" I thought it behooved me to revisit some of the scientific literature which Wade relies upon to give form to him to his argument. One of the pillars of The Faith Instinct is group selection, and one of the scholars who Wade specifically cites is the economist Samuel Bowles. Bowles was an author on a paper I reviewed earlier this week, one the empirical assessment of the extent of heritability of wealth across generations in vario...
Source: Gene Expression - November 7, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

November Man of the Month – Patrick F. TerryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This month, Disruptive Women welcomes Patrick F. Terry, a self-proclaimed “JAD” (Just A Dad), as our Man of the Month. Q: So, where should we start? You have been involved with founding a number of ground breaking biotechnology companies, life science research foundations, trade associations, philanthropic groups, and a whole host of public policy organizations. A: I enjoy thinking ahead and trying to do the next new thing to advance science, biomedical research, and the business of patient-centered health care. I’m very impatient for change. I consider myself an unrepentant insurgent, renegade, and rabble ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - November 6, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Man of the Month genetics biomedical research biotech biotechnology breast cancer genetic disease Genomic Health genomics life science patient-centered health care Personalized Medicine public policy Source Type: blogs

Alzheimer's Common in Children of Alzheimer's PatientsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Our study shows that high blood pressure and an innate pro-inflammatory cytokine response in middle age significantly contributers to Alzheimer's disease. As these risk factors cluster in families, it is important to realize that early interventions could prevent late-onset Alzheimer's disease. One could argue for a high-risk prevention strategy by identifying the offspring of patients with Alzheimer's disease, screening them for hypertension and vascular factors and implementing various non-pharmacological health measures.Source Vascular Factors and Markers of Inflammation in Offspring With a Parental History of Late-O...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - November 6, 2009 Category: Dementia Tags: genetics alzheimer's children Source Type: blogs

Abstract: Association study between GABA receptor genes and anxiety spectrum disordersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that common variation in the GABRA2, GABRA3, GABRA6, and GABRG2 genes does not play a major role in liability to anxiety spectrum disorders. (Text has been reformatted for online visual clarity, links added; ed.) Source... Copyright © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc., A Wiley Company (Source: Latest entries from www.anxietyinsights.info)
Source: Latest entries from www.anxietyinsights.info - November 6, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Anxiety Insights Tags: anxiety disorders genetics Source Type: blogs

Population Genetics in the Age of MetagenomicsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Microbial population genetics examines the spatial and temporal patterns of genetic variation across diverse geographic scales and ecological niches. With the arrival of molecular biological techniques, the past 40 years have seen tremendous progresses in microbial population genetics. However, in recent years, the analyses of genetic materials directly from natural environments have revolutionized our approaches and understandings of the diversity, function, and inter-relationships among microorganisms in diverse natural ecological niches (Xu, 2010). The emergence and development of this expanding new field, that of metag...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - November 3, 2009 Category: Microbiology Tags: Microbial Population Genetics metagenomics Source Type: blogs

Population Genetics of Viral PathogensEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Many viral pathogens, especially those with an RNA genome, are characterized by their high mutation rates and large population sizes. These features are responsible for the high levels of genetic variation usually found in viral populations and for their rapid response to different selective challenges encountered during their infection and transmission processes. They are quantitatively and qualitatively so different from most other organisms that special models and concepts, such as the quasispecies model, have been developed to better describe the evolutionary dynamics of viral populations (Xu, 2010). Population genetic...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - November 3, 2009 Category: Microbiology Tags: Viral Pathogens Phylodynamics population genetics Source Type: blogs

Population Genetics of MalariaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Genetic diversity, population structure, and evolutionary history of malaria parasites are among the key factors that will influence our ability to identify genes contributing to drug resistance, parasite development, and disease pathogenesis. These factors also have an impact on vaccine and drug development, parasite source tracking, as well as the formulation of other disease prevention and control measures. For example, a highly polymorphic parasite population will contain ample genetic diversity capable of generating drug resistance genotypes at an accelerated rate; while the presence of homogeneous parasite population...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - November 3, 2009 Category: Microbiology Tags: Microbial Population Genetics Malaria Source Type: blogs

Patents On Genes Can Be Challenged, Court RulesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A federal district court ruled today that patients and scientists can challenge patents on human genes in court. And the move allows a lawsuit challenging patents on two human genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer to move forward, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), which filed the suit. In a statement, the groups say the filed their suit because the patents are “illegal and restrict both scientific research and patients’ access to medical care.” They also charge that patents on human genes violate the First Amendment and patent l...
Source: Pharmalot - November 3, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized ACLU American Civil Liberties Union BRCA Breast Cancer Genes Myriad Genetics Patents Public Patent Foundation Source Type: blogs

Population Genetics of CyanobacteriaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Cyanobacteria are a group of ecologically diverse photosynthetic bacteria. Because niche differentiation is ultimately the product of differences among individuals within populations, understanding the evolutionary origins of this diversity ultimately requires a population genetics perspective. Recent work has elucidated the mechanisms that generate variation in cyanobacteria, the distribution of this diversity and its potential functional importance, and has suggested a population genomics approach to address fundamental questions regarding the nature of adaptive variation and niche differentiation in Cyanobacteria. (Xu, ...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - November 3, 2009 Category: Microbiology Tags: cyanobacteria population genetics Photosynthetic bacteria Source Type: blogs

Population Genetics of Human Pathogenic BacteriaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Population genetics examine variation in genes among a group of strains of a particular species. Its major theme is to look at how different environmental factors and selective pressures can affect the distribution of genes and alleles. Yersinia pestis was employed (Xu, 2010) as an example to illustrate how the techniques are used for population genetic studies and how the achievements of these kinds of studies can be used for rapid identification and tracing the origin of pathogenic bacteria. New emerging techniques, including high throughput sequencing technologies, will give us unprecedented opportunities to understand ...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - November 3, 2009 Category: Microbiology Tags: Microbial Population Genetics Source Type: blogs

Microbial population geneticsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
is a rapidly advancing field of investigation with relevance to many areas of science. The subject encompasses theoretical issues such as the origins and evolution of species, sex and recombination. Population genetics lays the foundations for tracking the origin and evolution of antibiotic resistance and deadly infectious pathogens and is also an essential tool in the utilization of beneficial microbes.References:Xu, J. (2010) Microbial Population Genetics. Caister Academic Press, Norfolk, UK.Full range of books on microbiology at Microbiology Books (Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists.)
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - November 3, 2009 Category: Microbiology Tags: antibiotic resistance Evolution of species population genetics Source Type: blogs

Gene linked to increased PTSD susceptibilityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study helps us understand how genetic factors can contribute to vulnerability in different people," said Joel Gelernter, senior author of the study and professor of psychiatry, genetics and neurobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. Between 40 to 70 percent of Americans have experienced a traumatic event, yet only 8 percent develop PTSD. The Yale team studied more than 1,200 people who had reported experiencing childhood adversity and/or traumatic events as adults. The type of childhood adversity included physical and sexual abuse or neglect. Traumatic events in adulthood included combat, sexual assault and natural ...
Source: Latest entries from www.anxietyinsights.info - November 3, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Anxiety Insights Tags: genetics post traumatic stress disorder Source Type: blogs

Journal of the American Medical Association 2009 (Vol. 302 No. 15)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article examines the relationship between CVD and the risk of hip fracture in twins and evaluates the relative association of genetics and lifestyle factors. Posted in Current Awareness, Journals Tagged: Cardiovascular Diseases, Genetics, Hip Fracture, Lifestyle, Twins (Source: Fade Library)
Source: Fade Library - November 2, 2009 Category: Medical Librarians Authors: hmedley99 Tags: Current Awareness Journals Cardiovascular Diseases Genetics Hip Fracture Lifestyle Twins Source Type: blogs

Journal of the American Medical Association 2009 (Vol. 302 No. 15))Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article examines the relationship between CVD and the risk of hip fracture in twins and evaluates the relative association of genetics and lifestyle factors. Posted in Current Awareness, Journals Tagged: Cardiovascular Diseases, Genetics, Hip Fracture, Lifestyle, Twins (Source: Fade Library)
Source: Fade Library - November 2, 2009 Category: Medical Librarians Authors: hmedley99 Tags: Current Awareness Journals Cardiovascular Diseases Genetics Hip Fracture Lifestyle Twins Source Type: blogs

Rethinking AntidepressantsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Thanks to Henry for sending this link. On cnet news, Elizabeth Armstrong Moore writes about research presented at this month's Neuroscience conference in Chicago:Depression researcher Eva Redei presented research at the Neuroscience 2009 conference in Chicago this week that calls into question two tenets of depression science: that stressful life events are a major cause of depression, and that an imbalance in neurotransmitters triggers depressive symptoms.Armstrong goes on to report that the research looks at the overlap of genes in RATS (not peeps) and notes that antidepressants work better for stress then depression and...
Source: Shrink Rap - November 1, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Tags: genetics depression antidepressants stress Source Type: blogs

Bad Driving Down To Brain Gene Variants?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
30% of the American public carry a gene that probably makes them more dangerous on the road. Hey, these people ought to move to cities and take mass transit. Bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists. People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it - and a follow-up test a few days later yielded similar results. About 30 percent of Americans have the variant. "These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," said Dr. Steven Cramer, neurology...
Source: FuturePundit - October 31, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Brain Genetics Source Type: blogs

"Ancestral North Indians", Europeans and pigmentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Something that has been nagging me about the recent paper by Reich et al. which models Indian populations as a hybridization event between two ancestral groups, "Ancestral South Indians" (ASI) and "Ancestral North Indians" (ANI). As a reminder, the ANI seem to have been rather like Europeans in their allele frequencies, or at least far closer to Europeans than they were to the ASI (it seems that they compared ANI with Western Europeans). This is interesting. They found in the populations surveyed that the low bound for ANI was 40%, the high ~80% (in the supplements they included some Pathans and Sindhis from the HGDP, and ...
Source: Gene Expression - October 30, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: India Population genetics Source Type: blogs

Hutterites are like IcelandersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The Spittoon points to a new paper, Drawing the history of the Hutterite population on a genetic landscape: inference from Y-chromosome and mtDNA genotypes, which I've been meaning to look at more closely. Unlike some attempts to use genetics to illuminate questions about the human past here the historical record is rather complete. The 16th century was the high tide and maximal efflorescence of German Protestantism. Not only were vast swaths of what we think of as redoubts of German Catholicism in the Austrian lands brought into the Protestant fold, but the diversity was also at a peak, as the religious status quo was in ...
Source: Gene Expression - October 29, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

Germs, collectivism and serotoninEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Culture-gene coevolution of individualism-collectivism and the serotonin transporter gene:Culture-gene coevolutionary theory posits that cultural values have evolved, are adaptive and influence the social and physical environments under which genetic selection operates. Here, we examined the association between cultural values of individualism-collectivism and allelic frequency of the serotonin transporter functional polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) as well as the role this culture-gene association may play in explaining global variability in prevalence of pathogens and affective disorders. We found evidence that collectivistic cul...
Source: Gene Expression - October 28, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Behavior Genetics Source Type: blogs

Svante Paabo believes modern humans & Neandertals interbredEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Neanderthals 'had sex' with modern man: Professor Svante Paabo, director of genetics at the renowned Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, will shortly publish his analysis of the entire Neanderthal genome, using DNA retrieved from fossils. He aims to compare it with the genomes of modern humans and chimpanzees to work out the ancestry of all three species. ... Paabo recently told a conference at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory near New York that he was now sure the two species had had sex - but a question remained about how "productive" it had been. "What I'm really interested in is, did we hav...
Source: Gene Expression - October 26, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

Inferring deep history in genesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
When Mendelism reemerged in the early 20th century to what we term genetics no doubt the early practitioners of the nascent field would have been surprised to see where it went. The discovery of DNA as the substrate which encodes genetic information in the 1950s opened up molecular biology and led to a biophysical strain in genetics. Later, in the 1970s Alan Wilson and Vincent Sarich used crude measures of genetic distance to resolve controversies in paleontology, specifically, the date of separation between the human and ape lineage. To some extent genetics today spans the physical and historical sciences, whereas physica...
Source: Gene Expression - October 26, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

Diagnosis from Sequencing of Patient’s GenesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I found an article mentioning a promising method for diagnosing diseases without unknown origin.Though it’s still not a realistic option to perform sequencing in clinics and hospitals in many parts of the world. For the first time, scientists have diagnosed a genetic disease by completely sequencing all of a patient’s genes. Using high-throughput DNA sequencing technology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers successfully identified a gene mutation that was responsible for the patient’s disease, but had not been suspected based on clinical observations. Starting with DNA from a blood sample from the...
Source: ScienceRoll - October 25, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó Tags: genetics Source Type: blogs

EDAR & lubricationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Enhanced Edar Signalling Has Pleiotropic Effects on Craniofacial and Cutaneous Glands:The skin carries a number of appendages, including hair follicles and a range of glands, which develop under the influence of EDAR signalling. A gain of function allele of EDAR is found at high frequency in human populations of East Asia, with genetic evidence suggesting recent positive selection at this locus. The derived EDAR allele, estimated to have reached fixation more than 10,000 years ago, causes thickening of hair fibres, but the full spectrum of phenotypic changes induced by this allele is unknown. We have examined the changes i...
Source: Gene Expression - October 24, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Population genetics Source Type: blogs

What's going on at ASHG 2009?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
If you haven't been following the goings-on via Twitter, Luke Jostins has been posting some tidbits on his blog, Genetic Inference. If you get interested in something, remember you can search abstracts. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression)
Source: Gene Expression - October 24, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

What's going on at ASHG 2009?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
If you haven't been following the goings-on via Twitter, Luke Jostins has been posting some tidbits on his blog, Genetic Inference. If you get interested in something, remember you can search abstracts. (Source: Gene Expression)
Source: Gene Expression - October 24, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Population genetics Source Type: blogs

Only Perfect People Should Have ChildrenEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I hope you know that the title of this post is sarcastic.A reader wrote to us and asked if we'd address the issue of whether people with bipolar disorder should have children:"I have been asked how I could have had children knowing I had bipolar and the person asking would never have known I had bipolar if i did not told them."I enjoyed thinking about this, but I'm punting. I really don't like the idea of putting a value judgment on who should or shouldn't have children. Truly, there are a lot of people out there who shouldn't have babies (because they can't take care of them), but do, and a lot of wonderful people who've ...
Source: Shrink Rap - October 23, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Tags: genetics children bipolar Source Type: blogs

Inferring demographic historyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Very interesting paper in PLoS Genetics, Inferring the Joint Demographic History of Multiple Populations from Multidimensional SNP Frequency Data. Here's the author summary:The demographic history of our species is reflected in patterns of genetic variation within and among populations. We developed an efficient method for calculating the expected distribution of genetic variation, given a demographic model including such events as population size changes, population splits and joins, and migration. We applied our approach to publicly available human sequencing data, searching for models that best reproduce the observed pa...
Source: Gene Expression - October 23, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Population genetics Source Type: blogs

Dr. Kristi Funk on Breast Cancer and Genetic TestingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I was so blessed to get some time to talk with Dr. Kristi Funk in a phone interview. In my last blog I shared the first part of our interview when I asked her about choosing a lumpectomy over a mastectomy. While she was willing to put forth her thoughts on my questions, Dr. Funk is very supportive of her profession as a whole, indicating that a woman needs to discuss all her options with her own surgeon. Genetic testing for the BRCA gene mutation is one of the biggest advancements recently that we have made in the battle against breast cancer in my mind. So this was definitely an issue I wanted to explore further with Dr. ...
Source: Life with Breast Cancer - October 23, 2009 Category: Cancer Authors: davidf Tags: BRCA II Breast cancer community Breast cancer diagnosis Breast cancer lifestyle Breast cancer news Breast cancer research Breast cancer treatment Cancer and genetics National Breast Cancer Awareness Month genetic testing lumpectomy m Source Type: blogs

Genetics, More Observations from AttwoodEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have uncovered a new genetic signature that correlates strongly with autism and which doesn’t involve changes to the DNA sequence itself, a finding that may suggest new approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Researchers found higher-than-usual numbers of gene-regulating molecules called methyl groups in a region of the genome that regulates oxytocin receptor expression in people with autism. Previous studies have shown that giving oxytocin can improve social engagement behavior and it’s being explored as a potential treatment, and although the methylation status of ...
Source: Autism Vox - October 22, 2009 Category: Autism Authors: Jeff Stimpson Tags: Asperger's Syndrome Autism Advocacy Conference Autism Lit Autism Organizations Cause Genetics Duke University Tony Attwood Treatment Source Type: blogs

Live tweeting ASHG 2009Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Dr. Daniel MacArthur and Luke Jostins. Also see the #asgh2009 hash-tag. Read the comments on this post... (Source: Gene Expression)
Source: Gene Expression - October 21, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

The arc of evolutionary genetics is longEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Evolutionary ideas have been around a long time, at least since the Greeks, and like longer. I accept the arguments of researchers who suggest that humans are predisposed to Creationist thinking; after all, cross-cultural data shows the dominance of this model before the rise of modern evolutionary biology. But this does not mean that the possibility of evolution would be totally mystifying to the human race before Charles Darwin's time. After all, it may be that humans as a species have a predisposition toward theism as well, and yet all complex societies produce atheistic movements as counter-cultures, the Epicureans* am...
Source: Gene Expression - October 20, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

Abstract: Serotonin polymorphisms and PTSD in a trauma exposed African American populationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest a relationship between genetic variation in the 5HT2A promoter region and PTSD. (Text has been reformatted for online visual clarity; ed.) Source... Copyright © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc., A Wiley Company (Source: Latest entries from www.anxietyinsights.info)
Source: Latest entries from www.anxietyinsights.info - October 20, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Anxiety Insights Tags: genetics serotonin transporter gene post traumatic stress disorder Source Type: blogs

Humans still evolving, etc.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Are Humans Still Evolving? Absolutely, Says A New Analysis Of A Long-term Survey Of Human Health:"There is this idea that because medicine has been so good at reducing mortality rates, that means that natural selection is no longer operating in humans," said Stephen Stearns of Yale University. A recent analysis by Stearns and colleagues turns this idea on its head....Taking advantage of data collected as part of a 60-year study of more than 2000 North American women in the Framingham Heart Study, the researchers analyzed a handful of traits important to human health. By measuring the effects of these traits on the number o...
Source: Gene Expression - October 19, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Evolution Genetics Source Type: blogs

John Hawks & Bloggingheads.tvEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Another episode with me interviewing John Hawks on Bloggingheads.tv. Mostly we're talking about about Ardipithecus. The last 1/3 is about Indian genetics. We recorded on Thursday, but since then I've changed my mind on some issues and now disagree with some of what I said. I will likely post on my revisions soon, though have a rather low degree of certitude as to the accuracy of what I suspect, so I am poking through the literature to see if I can become more confident, or just falsify (if you missed my last discussion with John from two weeks ago, it's here). Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post....
Source: Gene Expression - October 17, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

The Cause, the CauseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As researchers continue to dig, some parents are splitting into groups: those who believe genes are the cause, and those who cite environmental factors, according to news reports. New research, which we reported on last week, has discovered a possible genetic link in the form of an alteration near a gene called semaphorin 5A, which is thought to guide the growth of brain-cell extensions essential for neuron-to-neuron communication. Any research is certainly progress, but one problem might be that the damned spectrum is so large that covering every case with one cause might well be impossible. Indeed, scientific consensus n...
Source: Autism Vox - October 15, 2009 Category: Autism Authors: Jeff Stimpson Tags: Cause Genetics Medicine Neuroscience CHOP research semaphorin 5A Source Type: blogs

HUGO – Free Pass to Swiss SymposiumEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Dr. Hsien Lei of the DNA Network informed us about a new blog launch, HUGO MATTERS from the International Human Genome Organization (HUGO). The HUGO is a group of scientists involved in genetic and genomic research whose aims are to assist coordination of research and foster collaboration of scientists. HUGO Matters will be a central hub for HUGO’s HUGO’s social networking efforts. Readers can discuss relevant topics in genomics including research, ethics, social issues and even education, according to HUGO president Prof. Edison T Liu. As part of the blog launch, HUGO is offering a free meeting registration at the...
Source: Genetics and Health - October 15, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Grace Ibay Tags: Cool Tools Genetics Blogging american society of human genetics dna network genetics symposium hugo human genome organization Source Type: blogs

Analogies to apes leading us on the wrong trackEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Reading the papers on Ardipithecus ramidus which just came out in Science one of the take-home points that jumps out at me is that extant apes may be very misleading analogs to extinct hominins. Here is Owen Lovejoy: In retrospect, clues to this vast divide between the evolutionary trajectories of African apes and hominids have always been present. Apes are largely inept at walking upright. They exhibit reproductive behavior and anatomy profoundly unlike those of humans. African ape males have retained (or evolved, see below) a massive SCC and exhibit little or no direct investment in their offspring (their reproductive st...
Source: Gene Expression - October 14, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

HUGO Matters: New BlogEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It’s good to see that huge organizations like the Human Genome Organisation are starting to use web 2.0 tools in order to reach people in an easier way. As Hsien-Hsien Lei just reported, HUGO now launched an official blog, HUGO Matters, that looks nice and I can’t wait to see the new posts and announcements so added it to my feedreader and the genetics selection of PeRSSonalized Medicine as well immediately. HUGO Matters is the central hub for HUGO’s social networking efforts. The blog will serve as a platform for discussions on genome technology, genomics and ethical, legal, and social issues, intellectual p...
Source: ScienceRoll - October 13, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó Tags: Blogging Health 2.0 Medicine Medicine 2.0 Web 2.0 genetics Source Type: blogs

There are no NFL genes (?)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
23andMe performs genome-wide association study on NFL players, fails to find athlete genes:It's unsurprising that the results of this study are negative (more on this below), but the conclusions they draw from this are fallacious. In fact we know from twin and family studies that many (but not all) traits related to athletic performance are highly heritable; researchers just haven't been able to track down the vast majority of the genetic variants responsible yet, and this study is no exception.What 23andMe have actually shown here is that the limited subset of genetic variation captured by their genotyping chip (which alm...
Source: Gene Expression - October 13, 2009 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: athletes Genetics Source Type: blogs