Seeing Crigler-Najjar syndrome among this week’s news releases announcing upcoming gene therapy clinical trials conjured immediate images of an Amish farmhouse with…
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post From Blue Lights to Gene Therapy: The Intriguing History of Crigler-Najjar SyndromeRead more
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post Gene Therapy for the “Butterfly Children”Read more
Videos of the “butterfly children” are difficult to watch. The name comes from the delicate skin of people who have epidermolysis bullosa…
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post CRISPR Gene Editing of Neurons in Prader-Willi SyndromeRead more
I’m happy to see that fears about using CRISPR to edit human genes have dampened over the past year, but it’s still…
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post A Closer Genetic Look at the Quagga, an Extinct ZebraRead more
Like the dodo bird, heath hen, and woolly mammoth, the quagga vanished so recently that glimpsing its evolution is possible, using DNA…
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post How Genetic Testing Guided My Breast Cancer Journey – To Eschewing BeefRead more
Two months ago, I joined a club nobody wants to be a member of – the 1 in 8 women who develop…
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post In “The Power,” Epigenetics Turns Misogyny On Its HeadRead more
I was thrilled to see Naomi Alderman’s dystopian masterpiece, The Power, top Barack Obama’s list of his favorite books of 2017. OK…
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post DNA Science in 2017Read more
The year has ended for me with an unexpected irony. On December 19, the FDA stamped its final approval on the first gene…
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post DNA Testing Kits as Holiday Gifts Can Bring SurprisesRead more
Lately people have been sending me their direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing results for help with interpretation. Although companies like 23andMe and ancestry.com do a…
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post An Argument Against Gene Drives to Extinguish New Zealand Mammals: Life Finds a WayRead more
The mammals of New Zealand have long posed a threat to native species. The Predator Free 2050 program is an effort to rid…
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post The Peaceable Genomes of PumpkinsRead more
Anyone who’s tossed a pumpkin onto the lawn after Halloween to discover vines snaking along the ground the next summer knows how…
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post The Biology of “Stranger Things’’Read more
The Netflix series “Stranger Things,” although terrific, might ditch the clichéd doctor-scientist in charge and get themselves a developmental biologist, stat. The disseminated…
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post Revealing the Subtext in DNA SequencesRead more
Whenever the first copy of a book I’ve written arrives on my doorstep, I’m afraid to look at it. I still haven’t…