2017 is supposed to be the year that FDA finally approves a gene therapy. But last week, the company behind the first…
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post Pulling the Plug on the First Gene Therapy DrugRead more
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post Dueling BRCA Databases: What About the Patient?Read more
The news release Monday morning grabbed my attention: “Study finds wide gap in quality of BRCA1/2 variant classification between Myriad Genetics and…
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post After Gene Therapy: Hannah’s Journey ContinuesRead more
Thirteen-year-old Hannah Sames looked beautiful two weeks ago at the annual Hannah’s Hope Fund gala near her hometown and mine. She’d put on 15…
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post Octopuses, Squid, and Cuttlefish: RNA Editing Instead of Genome Evolution?Read more
It isn’t surprising that the intelligent alien life forms that communicate with Amy Adams’ linguistics professor character Louise Banks in last year’s…
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post What’s in a Placenta? A Transcriptomic ViewRead more
I didn’t think much about placentas until I had one and part of it dislodged halfway through a 4-mile run. Happily it…
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post A New View of Diabetes?Read more
It’s hard to change entrenched ideas in science. Protein is the genetic material. Genes are continuous and immobile. The genome consists of…
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post Blinded By Stem CellsRead more
The small wavy shimmers and fuzzy areas in the 78-year-old’s eyes had grown slowly, leading to a diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration…
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post Saving GINA: Is Genetic Privacy Imperiled?Read more
A bill that passed its first hurdle yesterday in Congress threatens to take away genetic privacy protections put in place with the…
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post Is Transgender Identity Inherited?Read more
The recent return of the “which bathroom?” issue regarding transgender individuals’ use of public restrooms has made me think about how I’ve handled…
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post Rare Disease Day 2017: Talia’s StoryRead more
This year for Rare Disease Day – February 28th – DNA Science honors Cure CMT4J: Advancing Gene Therapy for Rare Diseases, run…
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post Defying Mendelian Genetics and “Embryo Engineering”Read more
Mendel’s laws, like any laws in science, are wonderful because they make predictions possible. A woman and man both carry a recessive…
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post Pig People?Read more
When Medscape asked me late last week to cover the making of early embryos that have cells from pigs and humans, I couldn’t…