Twenty-three years ago, Arizona State University geneticist Teri Markow collected samples of blood from the Havasupai Indians, who live in a remote…
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post Is the Havasupai Indian Case a Fairy Tale?Read more
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post HeLa, the Havasupai, and Informed ConsentRead more
HeLa cells are back in the news, with a Comment from Kathy Hudson and Francis Collins in Nature celebrating researchers’ collaboration with the…
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post Polar Bear Genome Reflects Climate ChangeRead more
Sad polar bears clinging to tiny ice floes have come to symbolize the threat of climate change to wildlife. A glimpse into…
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post Let’s Slow the Race to Sequence Everyone’s Genome: 3 ViewsRead more
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic-testing is apparently here to stay, and will likely soon give way to exome and genome sequencing for all. Yesterday…
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post Complex Controls to Make a Mouse LimbRead more
The cover of the June 7 issue of Science excited me in the way that the title of a summer beach read…
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post DNA Forensic Profiling Anniversaries in June, JulyRead more
This June and July mark several anniversaries in the field of forensic DNA profiling, so I thought I’d do a little looking…
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post When a Disease is Genetic But Not Inherited: Bea Rienhoff’s StoryRead more
Genetics is the study of genes, DNA, and variation; heredity is the passing of inherited traits from parents to offspring. Families…
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post Gene Therapy Kids UpdateRead more
Mid-June, I suspected that the media had picked up on something new in gene therapy when the Amazon rank for my book…
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post A Brief History of DNA PatentsRead more
DNA holds information in a way that other biomolecules do not. Even discarding a blood spot or bit of spit doesn’t prevent…
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post Two Intriguing Tumors: Fibroids and TeratomasRead more
Genome sequencing studies can be boring. It’s not that there are too many of them, although that will surely happen, but sometimes…
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post Genetics Errors in Supreme Court DecisionRead more
Earlier today, my “in” box began to fill with info from everyone I’ve ever met letting me know that the Supreme Court…
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post Battling Batten DiseaseRead more
Last week’s blog post was about a little girl who had a genetic disease that usually strikes adults. This week’s post is about…