The toppling of health care in the US has begun, and I fear will reverberate for decades to come. It is beginning…
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post Cutting NIH Support of FlyBase Threatens Preclinical – and Ultimately Clinical – ResearchRead more
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post Rare Disease Day 2025 is Postponed – Why?Read more
Every year near the end of February, Rare Disease Day honors the 30 million people in the US who have 10,000+ rare…
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post Transmissible Alzheimer’s Disease? Long-Ago Growth Hormone Treatment and a Legacy of Cannibalism and Mad CowsRead more
Five people treated for pituitary dwarfism decades ago with human growth hormone (hGH) pooled from cadavers have shown cognitive decline reminiscent of…
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post The Dawn of Molecular Genetics: A Glimpse of History in a Textbook from 1952Read more
The email from my former neighbor Shaun Kuczek was unexpected. “Hi Ricki! My Dad passed in July, and we’re cleaning out his…
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post The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese: A Geneticist’s ReviewRead more
The history of genetics begins, not with Gregor Mendel’s pea experiments, but with people long ago noticing family resemblances and vulnerabilities so…
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post Experimental Myotonic Dystrophy Treatment Teams Monoclonal Antibody and siRNARead more
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), an inherited disease affecting muscles, was one of the first described “expanding repeat” disorders. In these 50…
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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 Repealing Roe: A View from a Long-time Biology Textbook AuthorRead more
The Supreme Court justices who dismantled Roe v Wade in Dobbs v Jackson Woman’s Health Organization should have taken a refresher course…
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post The Utter Oddness of COVID AnosmiaRead more
The sudden inability to smell and taste that comes with COVID is startling and difficult to describe. I was lucky to experience…
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post Alzheimer’s Treatments in the Pipeline and the False Promise of Prevagen: Distinguishing Hope from HypeRead more
The avalanche of TV ads for Prevagen that coincided with my reaching Medicare age has inspired me to investigate what’s coming for…
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post Rare Disease in TV Series: Stranger Things, House, Call the MidwifeRead more
In honor of Rare Disease Day 2020 (February 29), I took a look at the portrayal of people with rare diseases on a…
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post CRISPRed Exosomes Correct Rett Syndrome Communication BreakdownRead more
CRISPR continues to be big news. Condemnation of the gene editing technology was swift late last year when a researcher in China…