Jan 30 2009
Henrietta Lacks was only 31 years old when she died on October 4, 1951. But thanks to one of the more shameful, yet at the same time scientifically beneficial, episodes in the history of medical science, cells from the tumor that killed her grow today in laboratories all over the world.
Henrietta Lacks’ story is a [...]
Jan 28 2009
Treatment advances have dramatically increased the cure rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common diagnosed cancer in children, from less than 10% in the 1960’s to more than 80%.
But even in those children who are cured, the response to treatment varies from patient to patient. For some, just a couple of weeks [...]
Jan 27 2009
If Facebook is starting to take over your life, maybe your genes are partly to blame.
Researchers from UC San Diego and Harvard University have shown that certain aspects of a person’s social network – how many people consider that person a friend, the likelihood that two of a person’s friends are themselves friends, and how [...]
Jan 26 2009
SNPwatch gives you the latest news about research linking various traits and conditions to individual genetic variations. These studies are exciting because they offer a glimpse into how genetics may affect our bodies and health; but in most cases, more work is needed before this research can provide information of value to individuals. For that [...]
Jan 22 2009
Not all bacteria are bad. Sure, there are plenty of nasty bugs that can make life pretty unpleasant; the ones that cause leprosy, anthrax, and cholera immediately come to mind.
But there are also plenty of beneficial bacteria living inside of us that we may not even know about. Some of them help us synthesize vitamins, digest [...]
Jan 21 2009
It’s a situation that would leave many physicians at a loss. A 55-year-old man with a family history of dementia asks his doctor about genetic testing for Alzheimer’s disease. Is there a test? Which test should be used? Is testing even appropriate?
This week the Journal of the American Medical Association published [...]
Jan 20 2009
SNPwatch gives you the latest news about research linking various traits and conditions to individual genetic variations. These studies are exciting because they offer a glimpse into how genetics may affect our bodies and health; but in most cases, more work is needed before this research can provide information of value to individuals. For that [...]
Jan 16 2009
It sounds like something from a nightmare: decades after eating a tainted hamburger you develop an incurable, fatal disease that literally eats holes in your brain.
Unfortunately, for some people this is a nightmare that is all too real. In the 1990s a small number of people in the UK developed a variant form of [...]
Jan 15 2009
SNPwatch gives you the latest news about research linking various traits and conditions to individual genetic variations. These studies are exciting because they offer a glimpse into how genetics may affect our bodies and health; but in most cases, more work is needed before this research can provide information of value to individuals. For that [...]
Jan 14 2009
Pop Quiz: What do women who eat cereal for breakfast each morning have in common?
They get a full day’s supply of 11 essential vitamins and minerals.
They enjoy better sex lives than women who don’t eat cereal for breakfast.
They are more likely to give birth to male children.
They make buying decisions based on the advice of [...]
