Safeguarding consent and confidentiality in clinical genetic practice

Suppose you have just had a genetic test for a condition that you suspect runs in your family. Aside from the possible implications for your own health, could – or should – your results be used to help to interpret tests done on other members of your family?...[Read More]

Book review: Ethical and Legal Requirements for Transnational Genetic Research

First, here is the bad news. Readers attracted by this title are in for a stormy and depressing journey. The writing, both in choice of language and sentence construction, is turgid. The problems of 'plain English' start in the six-page introduction, reach a low point in the ethical chapter and only improve slightly in the legal section...[Read More]

Book Review: Celebrating 75 Extraordinary Years

On 25 July 2011 the Wellcome Trust turned 75, and to celebrate they have commissioned a collection of 15 stories based on some of the most interesting people they have funded...[Read More]

Genes, ancestry and racial identity

The Progress Educational Trust's recent debate 'Is There a Place for Race in Biology' generated lively discussion around whether the accurate identification of genetically-distinct populations is possible or desirable. The semantic issue of whether the term 'race' in this context should be abandoned in favour of 'ethnicity', 'ancestry', or some other term was also raised...[Read More]

Whole-genome sequencing may improve cancer diagnosis

Two US studies have demonstrated how whole-genome screening can help improve cancer treatment and diagnosis. The researchers claim to have taken a major step towards using this type of screening to help predict patients' responses to different treatments based on their genetics...[Read More]

New genetic markers for heart disease discovered

An international research consortium has discovered 13 new genetic markers and confirmed ten previously identified markers associated with heart disease. The study, one of the world's largest, more than doubles the known genetic risk factors for coronary artery disease, a common cause of heart attacks and strokes....[Read More]

Event Review: Unnatural - The Heretical Idea of Making People

The creation of human life through artificial means is often portrayed as an inherently dangerous and unnatural process, where the product of any such attempt is assumed to be somehow inferior and lacking in humanity. This is a recurrent idea that looms over contemporary debate surrounding many scientific advances and technologies in biology, from reproductive cloning to embryonic stem cell (ESC) research, IVF and human genetics....[Read More]

Book Review: Drawing the Map of Life - Inside the Human Genome Project

The quest to sequence the first human genome has all the ingredients of a good thriller. Privately funded maverick scientist Dr Craig Venter raced the government-sponsored Human Genome Project (HGP) to be the first to sequence the human genetic code. When the draft code was finally published in 2001, it became one of the landmark scientific advances of the last decade...[Read More]

Human genome sequenced for $50,000 with third generation technology

Third-generation 'single-molecule' technology has been used for the first time to read a human genome sequence. Professor Stephen Quake, from Stanford University, California, US, is only the eighth person whose genome has been published since the first breakthroughs were made in 2000. When this latest generation of technology is perfected the hope is that it will bring us one step closer to ‘the $1000 genome' that will open the door to personalised medical treatme...[Read More]

US congress approves genetic anti-discrimination law

Following the Senate's unanimous approval the previous week, the US House of Representatives, on Thursday, almost-unanimously (414-1) passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act ('GINA'), providing final Congressional support for legislation that prohibits genetic discrimination by employers, insurers and unions. The bill (HR 493), which is hailed...[Read More]

New human genome maps identify large regions of genetic variability

A new study, published in the journal Nature, has mapped the genome of eight individuals and revealed large regions of genetic variability. An international collaboration led by Evan Eichler at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute compared the genome of four African, two Asian, and two European individual...[Read More]

Urgent regulation needed for direct to public gene tests, say experts

A new report - 'More Genes Direct' - published by the UK's Human Genetics Commission (HGC) called for tighter regulation and a review of the European Law which deals with genetic tests. The report - an update of the 2003 version - aims to address growing concerns over the number of...[Read More]

Second-generation human genome map to shed new light on disease

The International HapMap Consortium, a public-private effort to identify and catalogue genetic similarities and differences in humans, this month unveiled its second-generation version of the human genome; a map three times more detailed than the original version released in 2005. The new map will help scientists to...[Read More]

Prospective DNA Banking: Worthwhile? Ethical? Socially Acceptable?

According to one Nature columnist, 21 October 2004 marked the 'End of the beginning'; the day the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium published its 'gold standard' version of the human genome sequence (1). The Human Genome Project was set up in 1990 to read all the instructions needed to make...[Read More]

Maverick genome scientist unveils his genetic code

The scientist who lead the private effort to sequence the human genome has revealed his own complete genetic make-up. The unveiling of J. Craig Venter's genome in the open access journal PloS Biology marks the first time that the complete DNA sequence of an individual has...[Read More]

Analysis of 'junk' DNA throws up surprises

The universally accepted maxim that genes are transcribed into RNA and subsequently translated into proteins, a concept that has underwritten huge swathes of research in the last 40 years, has been significantly muddied. A groundbreaking Nature paper has shown the road from genome to protein is much...[Read More]

New studies shed light on genetics of diabetes

A series of newly released studies have made major inroads into the understanding of the genetic basis of type 2 adult onset diabetes. Four teams of researchers, from a mixture of academic and private institutions in the UK, America and Iceland, have uncovered seven genes thought to...[Read More]

Pharmacogenetics in assisted reproduction: optimising response to ovarian stimulation

Pharmacogenetics is not new. One of our authors famously can drink a bottle of wine with little effect. The other falls asleep after just one glass. Indeed, the speed at which alcohol is broken down in the body is partly genetically determined. This principle applies to most, if not all...[Read More]

Final human chromosome mapped

After 10 years of work, 150 British and American scientists have completed a genetic map of human chromosome one, the largest of the 23 bundles of genetic material in the human body. Chromosome one makes up about eight per cent of the total human genome, and...[Read More]

US projects to identify genetic influences on health

Two projects aiming to pinpoint genetic and other influences on health have been launched in the US. The Genes and Environment Initiative (GEI), based at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will look at genetic variations and measure environmental factors such as exposure to toxins. The other initiative is a...[Read More]