Genome Alberta's Official Newsletter

This news digest is published by GE³LS at Genome Alberta. Feel free to forward to your colleagues.
To view past issues of the GE³LS Digest or to subscribe to the Digest please go to:
http://genomealberta.ca/news

Health Law and Science Policy Group
http://www.law.ualberta.ca/news_events/HeaLS_Group.php
The University of Alberta has announced the establishment of the new Health Law and Science Policy (HeaLS) Group, led by Research Director Timothy Caulfield. Broadly, the goals of the group are to conduct health law and science policy research, disseminate scholarly outputs and policy work to a broad interdisciplinary community, facilitate collaborative opportunities with national and internationally based researchers and organizations, and attract top graduate students to the Faculty.

Parents Sue State to Protect Genetic Info
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/19/43164.htm
Minnesota collects DNA samples from newborn children, then illegally keeps the genetic information and shares it with third parties without informed consent of the parents, parents say in a class action. They claim that state violated its own Genetic Privacy Act by collecting, storing and disseminating their children's genetic information without informed consent.

Improved genetic mapping opens up privacy concerns: B.C. Civil Liberties Association
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Improved+genetic+mapping+opens+privacy+concerns+Civil+Liberties/6020813/story.html
The federal government's tough on crime agenda and better-than-ever genetic mapping technologies means more legal protections are needed to protect the privacy of Canadians, according to a report commissioned by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

Is Personalized Medicine In Your Future?
http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/clinical-systems/232500152
The teaser at the top of a recent Wall Street Journal article proclaimed, "What does the future of medicine hold? Tiny health monitors, tailored therapies--and the end of illness." Whoa! IT-enhanced personalized medical therapy holds great promise, but we won't be eliminating disease from the face of the earth any time soon. Nature is much too smart to let that happen.

Charity Funding Boosts Controversial Therapy for Mitochondrial Disease
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/01/charity-funding-boosts-controversial.html?ref=ra
Several research groups, primarily one based at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, are developing ways to eliminate a child's chance of inheriting diseased mitochondria present in its mother's egg by transferring nuclear DNA from that egg into an egg donated by a third party.

The Bioethics of Denying Patients Organ Transplants
http://www.thetakeaway.org/2012/jan/18/bioethics-denying-patiebts-organ-transplants/
Three-year-old Amelia Rivera has a rare genetic disease called Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome. She suffers from mental impairment, epileptic-like seizures, and she can't walk or talk. Besides her illness she's in desperate need of a kidney transplant to live to see her fourth birthday.

Breaking the Prostate Cancer Gene Code
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/breaking-the-prostate-cancer-gene-code-2012-01-18
These genetic findings are in their early stages and further research is needed to ascertain the degree to which the gene mutation signals prostate cancer risk. In time, the impact on screening efforts could mirror that of the BRCA gene in women with a hereditary risk of early-onset breast cancer.

Sex selection migrates to Canada
http://www.cmaj.ca/site/earlyreleases/16jan12_sex-selection-migrates-to-canada.xhtml
As such tests become more advanced, they exacerbate the ethical dilemma, particularly if they’re used to determine other fetal characteristics, Bowman adds. “What we're seeing with sex-selective abortion is the tip of the iceberg … We really have to think about our values as a society as technology evolves.

Stem Cell Applications Hasten into the Clinic
http://www.genengnews.com/gen-articles/stem-cell-applications-hasten-into-the-clinic/3979/
Stem cell therapy is redeeming itself after striking failures. With therapies well into clinical trials, successes are accumulating.

New push to expand DNA samples from N.Y. offenders
http://www.observertoday.com/page/content.detail/id/567515/New-push-to-expand-DNA-samples-from-N-Y--offenders.html?nav=5047
The addition of petit larceny to a list of crimes requiring DNA samples from convicted offenders has helped solve 51 murders, 222 sexual assaults, 117 robberies and 407 burglaries over the past 5 years, New York authorities say.
Now the Cuomo administration wants to expand the statewide DNA databank to include all misdemeanor convictions under the penal code, plus all felony convictions under other statutes such as traffic and business laws. That would mean DNA samples for DWI convictions and securities fraud, for example.

Sequence Your Genome for Under $1,000
http://news.discovery.com/tech/sequence-your-genes-for-under-1000-120114.html
Genome sequencing was once the realm of big institutions with loads of money, but a company called Ion Torrent is changing that. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company showed off its gene-sequencing device called the Ion Proton.

No Genome is an Island
http://blogs.cdc.gov/genomics/2012/01/12/no-genome-is-an-island/
There was no cholera in Haiti until October 2010, when epidemic cholera swept the country. Within 6 months, more than 250,000 people were sickened and 4,000 died. A catastrophic earthquake earlier that year had exacerbated human and environmental risks by displacing millions of people and disrupting public health infrastructure. But there would have been no epidemic without the bacterium, Vibrio cholerae. How did the pathogen enter the picture?

Plaintiffs in US stem cell case try again
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/01/plaintiffs-in-us-stem-cell-case-try-again.html
The two adult stem cell scientists who are attempting to put a halt to US government funding of human embryonic stem cell research filed briefs today in a high-ranking US court that will hear oral arguments in the case in April.

How DNA contamination can affect court cases
http://genomicsnews.ca/en/stories/how-dna-contamination-can-affect-court-cases.html
A woman is found strangled and partially burned in her house. DNA matching her ex-partner - who claims he hasn't seen her for several months - is lifted from her pyjamas. The man claims his DNA must have got there via their child's clothing or toys. Would you believe him?


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ScienceOnline2012 is happening this weekend in North Carolina. Not there in person? You can be there virtually! The full agenda is available at scienceonline2012.com, along with links to their blog and other interesting materials. Visit their tumblog at scio12.com for links to quotes, conversations, images, sounds, photos and more from the conference. And for realtime updates, follow #scio12 on twitter.


ScienceOnline 2012
ScienceOnline is a gathering of researchers, bloggers, reporters, authors and students who are passionate about science and perhaps more importantly they are passionate about communicating to the world about science. Research shows that only 28% of adults in the U.S. are scientifically literate enough to understand the Tuesday Science section of the New York Times and Canadians are not likely to fare any better. This conference sells out every year and this year Genome Alberta and our GenOmics application are pleased to be a sponsor of the event.

When: January 19-21, 2012
Where: McKimmon Center, North Carolina State University


Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC) 2012
Launched by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors in 2009, the Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC) is the only fully integrated conference to examine the advances and challenges of Personalized Medicine through a practical lens. PMWC brings together the thought-leaders of business, government, healthcare-delivery, research and technology into one information-rich, two-day conference.

When: January 23-24, 2012
Where: Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California


Complex Traits: Genomics and Computational Approaches
Complex traits are driven by constellations of genetic and environmental factors interacting in complex ways. Genetic and environmental perturbations do not directly lead to disease but, rather, impact molecular processes that underlie physiological states associated with disease. Therefore, in order to develop a complete understanding of complex traits like disease, biological systems must be queried in a comprehensive fashion in multiple dimensions. More information is available at the Complex Traits: Genomics & Computational Approaches website

When: February 20 - 25, 2012
Where: Beaver Run Resort, Breckenridge, Colorado


ESRC Genomics Network Conference 2012 - Genomics in Society: Facts, Fictions and Cultures
The ESRC Genomics Network (EGN) was established in 2002, and this 2012 conference organised by Egenis, one of the Network partners, will present the scope of research excellence in the social sciences of current bioscience innovation and celebrate a decade of academic achievement in the social sciences.

When: April 23 - 24, 2012
Where: London UK


Canadian Bioethics Society Annual Conference: Fostering Innovation in Canadian Bioethics
When: May 31 - June 2, 2012
Where: Montreal, Quebec
http://www.cbs-scb2012.com/


Using and Abusing Evidence in Science and Health Policy
This event will investigate how evidence is used in a variety of health and science policy domains, specifically considering the ways in which it is has been used (or misused) and represented (or misrepresented) in relevant laws, policies and regulations, in addition to the numerous challenges and barriers to its use in policy development. Event delegates will also consider the policy making circumstances that require sound evidence, and those that allow for a degree of evidentiary uncertainty.

When: May 30 - June 1, 2012
Where: Rimrock Resort Hotel, Banff, Alberta

For more information contact Robyn Hyde-Lay at rhydelay@law.ualberta.ca