Yesterday on The Conversation, Timothy Smith from the Florey Neurosciences Institute argued that in order to improve genetics research, we need free and open access to genetic information. But while the…
Technical, financial and legal barriers stop the sharing of vital information in medical research.
Frans de Waal/ Wikimedia Commons
A paper published today in Science Translational Medicine calls for the open sharing of clinical trial data among the medical research community. Researchers argue data sharing would lead to faster, more…
Researchers have found that rare mutations in XRCC2 increase the risk of breast cancer.
Robert S Donovan
You’ve probably heard of BRCA1 and BRCA2 – the genes that, when mutated, markedly increase the risk of developing breast cancer. We’ve also known for a while that a handful of other genes also increase…
These genes exert their influence through the immune system.
Flickr/Natashacld
In one of the largest human genetic studies ever undertaken, scientists have identified the major common genetic variants that contribute to the cause of the devastating neurological disease, multiple…
Understanding DNA is vital to developing our knowledge of complex diseases.
DNA Art Online
Imagine taking a thousand copies of a phone book, shredding them all together, then trying to use the overlapping pieces to reconstruct a copy.
This is a simple problem compared to assembling the human…
Stem cells have successfully been transplanted to restore sight.
BWJones
In 2002, the Australian federal Parliament passed two Acts to regulate human embryo and stem cell research.
The Prohibition of Human Cloning Act banned practices that people seemed to be most worried…
Hard laws and regulations are needed to protect our genetic information.
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
The rapid development of genetic science and technology holds hope for greatly improved health outcomes, with better diagnostics, treatments and cures, as well as the beginning of pharmacogenomics and…
Genetic change in humans is driven by cultural change, for example, blue eyes.
Corey Butler
The human genome provides penetrating and unexpected insights into human individual and collective history. Among them is the counterintuitive idea that genes are at the mercy of experience – that what…
Mapping genetic diseases will reduce the unknown risks in family planning.
flickr/Mrs Flinger
Thanks to the genetic revolution and the internet, we can now see a way to map genetic diseases and reduce the burden of inherited conditions.
Each year more than 3 million children born with a serious…
Try as you might, there's no proof you can control your genetic expression.
mutsmuts/Flickr
Can the way we think influence the way we feel? Most of us would say yes. But can thinking affect the way our bodies behave on a genetic level? Can we, in essence, think ourselves better? A growing band…
Analysing the genome has revealed a great deal about common diseases.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
A few days ago, Jonathan Latham of The Guardian newspaper decried the failure of modern genetics to make inroads on common diseases. I think he got things very wrong.
Latham claimed that:
Despite more…
