Feb 22 2010
People chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus currently have only one treatment option: a combination of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-ylated interferon alpha and ribavirin (RBV). Not only does this drug regimen fail to eradicate the virus in about half of all patients who receive it, but even when it does work the side effects can [...]
Feb 10 2010
Artist’s impression of Inuk based on genetic analysis
Nuka Godfredsen/Nature
Tufts of hair rescued from the permafrost in Greenland and then tucked away in a basement in Denmark for more than 20 years have given scientists their first glimpse into the genetics of an ancient human.
Eske Willerslev and Morten Rasmussen of the Centre for GeoGenetics at the [...]
Sep 25 2009
For as long as humans have lived in complex communities, cities and civilizations, they have divided and classified their societies. Those divisions have been based on age, gender, appearance or – in many cases – occupation. In many traditional societies artisans would share the same social status; as would soldiers, priests and workers in any [...]
Sep 18 2009
Unlike the flu virus, which the body is generally able to fight off completely, infection with hepatitis C is often chronic. That means for most of the three to four million people worldwide who are newly infected each year the virus will persist in the body, where it greatly increases risk for chronic liver [...]
Aug 17 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 [...]
Jun 18 2009
It’s no secret that obesity rates are rising — quickly. Between 2000 and 2005 the prevalence of obesity rose by 24%. Extreme obesity increased by more than 50%. If current trends continue, more than half of all Americans will be clinically obese by the year 2030.
Rapid changes in the prevalence of a disorder suggest that [...]
Feb 25 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 [...]
Nov 05 2008
Understanding the genetic changes that lead to different cancers is key to more effective diagnosis and treatment of the disease. And thanks to the availability of faster, cheaper genome sequencing technologies, researchers are now able to peer more deeply into the DNA of cancer cells than ever before.
Recent studies have sequenced more than 600 [...]
Feb 21 2008
If you take two members of the human race at random and ask how much their genomes differ, you’ll get a surprising answer: they’re almost identical.
On average, for every 1,000 DNA bases you have, 999 or so of them are exactly the same between you and your neighbor – and for that matter, between you [...]
Jan 29 2008
An editorial in the February issue of Nature Genetics makes a number of excellent points about the potential that personal genomics services such as 23andMe have to directly engage the public in research, not just as subjects but as collaborators.
23andMe was founded in part to harness the natural curiosity that results when people can see [...]
