Tag: "genetics"
Personalized Medicine: A Potential Tool for Predicting Disease?
We may finally be at the threshold of the age of personalized medicine. In a recent study, scientists were able to predict that a man was at a higher risk for developing Type 2 diabetes and over a two-year period tracked his health as he developed the disease.
Post on May 14, 2012 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Desperately Seeking Autism Genes
Autism is incredibly frustrating from a genetic point of view. Every study clearly shows that genetics plays an important role in this disease. But when these studies try to find a cause, they keep coming up short.
Post on Apr 30, 2012 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Divining Human History with DNA
Everyone knows about how genetics is changing how we look at and treat human disease. But what may be less appreciated is what it can tell us about human history.
Post on Apr 16, 2012 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Why Don't We Get Cancer More Often?
Dr. Mina Bissell of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is one of the world’s leading researchers on breast cancer. Her group recently found that normal breast cells provide an innate defense mechanism against cancer by secreting a protein to actively and specifically kill breast cancer cells without harming normal ones.
Post on Apr 09, 2012 by Jennifer Huber from QUEST Northern California
Geneticists Solve Van Gogh's Mutant Sunflowers After 125 Years
Most admirers of Vincent van Gogh's iconic "Sunflower" paintings gaze upon the golden inflorescences without any awareness of the scientific conundrum they pose. But researchers from the University of Georgia have finally cracked the case with a paper published in PLoS Genetics.
Post on Apr 03, 2012 by Danna Staaf from QUEST Northern California
Evolution, Easy as Can Be
Evolving from something simple like a single celled beast into a slug, mushroom, cactus or a human seems impossibly hard. The series of precise DNA changes you need is mind-boggling to think about. Unless, of course, the changes are easier than we imagine.
Post on Feb 20, 2012 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
The Benefits of Radioactive Fallout
Wildlife seems to be thriving in the radioactive areas around Chernobyl. For now it looks like if animals had to choose, they'd choose radioactivity over humans.
Post on Jan 09, 2012 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
We Don’t Want the Funk (in our Wine)
Scientists are using DNA sequencing to protect our wines by keeping future sulfite-resistant forms of the yeast Brettanomyces bruxellensis at bay.
Post on Dec 26, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Gaming to Understand Disease
By playing Phylo, you help scientists better understand human disease and you get to have fun. Doing good by having fun is a win-win for scientists and the public.
Post on Dec 12, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Living Longer
Using a genetic trick, scientists were able to increase the lifespan of a worm by changing how it used its genes. This extended lifespan was passed on to its kids and grand kids but not to its great grand kids.
Post on Nov 28, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Sniffing Out Mr. Right
Biology may have made it so that women prefer the smell of men with different immune systems from their own. Disturbingly, the pill may turn this on its head so that women like the way men with similar immune systems smell.
Post on Nov 07, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Will He Have My Nose?
I get these kinds of questions all the time. And except for a few traits, I have to pretty much say I don’t know.
Post on Oct 24, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Sequencing Within Reach
The cost of figuring out what someone’s DNA looks like is dropping like a stone. For casual consumers, though, affordable DNA sequencing can be less than useful. In fact, it might even make a difficult situation worse.
Post on Oct 10, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Turning Chickens into Dinosaurs
If we are ever going to resurrect dinosaurs, it probably won't be like in the movie Jurassic Park. Instead, we'll have to throw evolution into reverse and turn a bird back into a dinosaur.
Post on Sep 12, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
How Neanderthal are You?
Graduate students at Stanford have created a tool called the Interpretome that lets you plug in your genome so you can figure out how Neanderthal you are.
Post on Aug 29, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
The High Cost of Sex
Biologically speaking, sex is ungodly expensive. One reason it may have evolved in to keep our genomes stable and intact.
Post on Aug 01, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
New Study Suggests Autism More Tightly Linked To Environment Than Genetics
The scientists estimate that environmental factors common to twins explains 55% of susceptibility to autism, whereas genetics accounts for only 37%.
Post on Jul 22, 2011 by Darya Pino from QUEST Northern California
Autism More than Genes
A new twin study suggests that the environment may play a bigger role in autism than scientists previously thought.
Post on Jul 18, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr from QUEST Northern California
Patient-Specific DNA Sequencing Finally Paying Off
Here Dr. Starr talks about three patients who have dramatically improved lives because scientists sequenced their DNA and correctly interpreted the results. The dream of helping individual patients using data from the human genome project is finally being realized.
Post on Jul 04, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr
The Cloud in the Silver Lining
There are no free lunches in genetics. Having a certain version of a gene may protect you from one thing, but make you susceptible to another.
Post on Jun 20, 2011 by Dr. Barry Starr
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