Dense living communities of hundreds of bacterial species form biofilms on our teeth. Without careful brushing and flossing of this dental plaque…
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post Bioprospecting in Dental Tartar from Neanderthals for Novel Antibiotics and Revisiting the Discovery of PenicillinRead more
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post Embracing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Genetics Textbooks and TestingRead more
I just finished revising the fourteenth edition of my college textbook, Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications. The first was published at the…
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post Seventy Years Since Watson and Crick’s Paper Introduced DNA: A Brief History of the Molecule of LifeRead more
On April 25, 1953, “MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF NUCLEIC ACIDS: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” was published in Nature. J. D. Watson…
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post Genetic Signature for Drug Addiction Revealed in New Analysis of More Than A Million GenomesRead more
Drug addiction is prevalent and deadly. In the US in 2021, more than 46 million people aged 12 or older had addiction…
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post New Urine DNA Test Can Predict Bladder Cancer a Dozen Years Before SymptomsRead more
A urine test for DNA pieces bearing 10 key mutations can indicate early inklings of bladder cancer, according to a report at…
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post The New Fungus Among Us, Candida aurisRead more
In “The Last of Us,” a video game and recently-wrapped HBO series, giant mutant fungi turn much of humanity into zombies. In…
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post Partial Fetus in Sister’s Brain Supports Role of DNA Repeats in DevelopmentRead more
Startling images in the journal Neurology made the media rounds last week. CT scans show a partial fetus wedged within a space…
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post The Dogs of Chernobyl Reveal the Genomic Aftermath of a Human-Made Environmental DisasterRead more
In the original Planet of the Apes, the Forbidden Zone is a future radiation-devastated landscape from which hardy new mutants arise, shifting…
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post Rare Disease Day 2023: Isla’s Story and NGLY1 DeficiencyRead more
The road to naming an unusual collection of unfolding symptoms is called the “diagnostic odyssey” for good reason: the journey takes, on…
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post Why COVID Vaccines Proliferate as Monoclonal Antibody Drugs FadeRead more
Monoclonal antibody drugs to fight COVID are being taken off the market while new COVID vaccines are arriving, even as the old…
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post Why Race-Based Health Care is Bad Medicine: From BiDil to Kidney TransplantsRead more
Choosing a medical treatment based on patient traits historically used to define races is fundamentally flawed, because race in the context of…
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post Science Fairs Counter Science IlliteracyRead more
The pandemic ignited public interest in science, introducing the phrase “doing my research.” But the persistence of the idea that science aims…