Genome Alberta's Official Newsletter

GE3LS Digest - February 2, 2010

British Columbia CDC Announces H1N1 Sequencing Project – January 21, 2010
http://www.genomeweb.com//node/931625?hq_e=el&hq_m=598036&hq_l=3&hq_v=18a1fdcd03
British Columbia's Centre for Disease Control announced today that it is launching an effort to sequence influenza genomes in the hopes of better understanding the pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus evolution. The team plans to sequence the genomes of hundreds of flu viruses circulating in the province before and after the Winter Olympics, taking place in Vancouver next month. The goals of the project, which is being funded by the BCCDC and Genome British Columbia, are to understand both how the pandemic virus arrived and evolved in BC and to explore how sequences change in the virus following a large gathering of people from around the world. "The data uncovered from this project will enable BC to track how the virus moved through the population — information that can assist public health officials in understanding the virus and preparing for future outbreaks," BC Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall said in a statement.

INTERNATIONAL

The human genome ten years on: time to take stock – January 4, 2010
http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/2010/01/the-human-genome-ten-years-on.html
Ten years ago this June, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair announced that the first draft of the human genome had been completed by scientists. The politicians were a tad premature -- the draft was not published until 2001, the "finished" genome sequence took several more years, and a few small segments are still unread. But the achievement remains a huge landmark in self-knowledge for our species, and an anniversary that deserves the great attention it is certain to get. A lot has happened in the first decade of the genomic age, and as Sir Mark Walport, the director of the Wellcome Trust, said this morning on the Today programme, the anniversary is an opportune moment to take stock of developments in genetics and to debate their meaning. As Walport put it: "The quantity of genetic information that's being discovered is absolutely mind-boggling... Clearly that does have implications for our society and how we use that information."

Future jobs: what might you be doing? – January 15, 2010
http://sciencesowhat.direct.gov.uk/future-jobs/future-jobs-what-might-you-be-doing
With the help of the team at Fast Future Research, Science: [So what? So everything] has looked at potential developments in science and technology over  the next 20 years and identified 20 jobs we could be doing as a result of these advances. What would you like to do?
1. Body part maker: Advances in science will make it possible to create living body parts, so we could need living body part makers, body part stores and body part repair shops.
2. Nano-medic: Advances in nanotechnology for creating molecular-scale devices and treatments could transform personal healthcare so we would need a new breed of nano medicine specialists to administer these treatments.
3. Pharmer of genetically engineered crops and livestock: New-age farmers will grow crops and keep animals that have been genetically engineered to increase the amount of food they produce and to include proteins that are good for our health. Scientists are already working on a vaccine-carrying tomato and therapeutic milk from cows, sheep and goats. …

DNA becoming more available, useful to commercial cattlemen – January 16, 2010
http://www.theprairiestar.com/articles/2010/01/16/ag_news/livestock/livestock2.txt
The DNA panels now becoming commercially available and those on the horizon are set to usher in the genomic-enabled era. When trying to make change through genetic selection, it boils down to three things - accuracy of the breeding value information, intensity of selection and interval between generations, says Ronnie Green, global director of technical services for Pfizer Animal Genetics.
Green discussed advances in DNA testing technology, its increasing use in genetic selection, and other applications for managing cattle production at the 2009 Range Beef Cow Symposium in Casper, Wyo. Dec. 1-3.

Timeline: A Brief History of Stem Cell Research – January 16, 2010
http://www.scienceprogress.org/2009/01/timeline-a-brief-history-of-stem-cell-research/
The stories of research involving human embryonic stem cells and the policy governing that work are intertwined and stretch back into the mid-1970s. Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, discussions began about how to conduct ethical research on human fetal tissue. Since that time, scientists have made great strides—most notable the isolation of human embryonic stem cells. Conservative and progressive presidents alike have curtailed federal funding for research for ethical reasons, but the position taken by President Bush both limited advances in regenerative medicine and ignored ethical guidelines. Case in point: a 2008 report determined that of the 21 viable lines eligible for funding under the Bush guidelines, only 16 were ethically derived. This timeline (after the jump) traces major events in this revolutionary field:

Nano technology tackles heart disease – January 19, 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8465531.stm
A molecule designed to find, latch onto, then treat hardened arteries could offer a new way to tackle heart disease, say its inventors. Nanoburrs, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), target only damaged cells in blood vessel walls. Once attached, they can release drugs in precisely the right place. But the British Heart Foundation warned the technology was some years from being used in patients. The hardening of the arteries which supply the heart, or atherosclerosis, can eventually lead to blockages which can cause heart attacks.

Lack of GMOs costs lives, claims leading scientist – January 20, 2010
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2010/01/20/119600/Lack-of-GMOs-costs-lives-claims-leading-scientist.htm
Many human lives have been lost due to the reluctance of some countries to accept genetically modified crops, former government chief scientific adviser, Sir David King has claimed. Addressing the annual City Food Lecture in London's Guildhall this week, Sir David cited the example of flood-resistant rice which had taken over five years to develop using conventional breeding techniques and genetic markers, when it could have been done in two using GM technology. The drop in rice production in 2007, due to flooding just after planting, was a major factor behind the price hike in 2008 that led to food riots and starvation in some parts of the world, he said. Yet the "submergence-tolerant" rice gene had been known about for years. Had gene-splicing been used to insert this into commercial varieties, it would have been available within two years. But because of sensitivities about GM crops, the International Rice Research Institute had opted for conventional breeding, and the first commercial strains were only just becoming available.

A New Way to Look for Diseases’ Genetic Roots – January 25, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/science/26gene.html
The hunt for the genetic roots of common diseases has hit a blank wall. The genetic variants found so far account in most cases for a small fraction of the genetic risk of the major killers. So where is the missing heritability and why has it not showed up? A Duke geneticist now suggests that the standard method of gene hunting had a theoretical flaw and should proceed on a different basis. The purpose of the $3 billion project to decode the human genome, completed in 2003, was to discover the genetic roots of common diseases like diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s. The diseases are called complex, meaning that several mutated genes are probably implicated in each. A principal theory has long been that these variant genes have become common in the population because the diseases strike late in life, after a person has had children. Bad genes would not be eliminated by natural selection at that age, as they would if the diseases struck before the child-bearing years.

Inaccurate media portrayal of PGD for 'minor' genetic disorders – January 26, 2010
http://www.phgfoundation.org/news/5144/
UK media coverage of plans to expand the list of conditions for which pre-natal genetic diagnosis (PGD) is permissible in the UK implies that some of the disorders are not serious. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates clinics providing prenatal genetic diagnosis in the UK, is reportedly in the process of considering which disorders to add to the list of permissible conditions. For a clinic to be able to offer PGD as part of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) – identifying and selecting for implantation only those embryos that do not carry a specific genetic disorder – the HFEA must agree that the condition in question is sufficiently serious. For some conditions, approval is only given on a case-by-case (as opposed to clinic-wide) basis.

Aging of Blood Stem Cells May Be Reversible: Older mice 'rejuvenated' when treated with blood factors from younger mice, researchers found – January 27, 2010
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/aging/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100253492
Scientists have found a way to make old stem cells in the blood act like young stem cells, a discovery that could lead to ways to slow the aging process. Taking certain factors from the blood of young mice and putting them in old mice made old stem cells take on the characteristics of younger stem cells. In addition, the tissues of the older mice appeared much more "youthful," according to the Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center. The change in the older stem cells is driven by signals from another type of cell nearby in the bone, the researchers explained. They added that this finding improves understanding of aging of the blood-forming system and points toward blood-based treatments for age-related health problems. The study findings are published in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal Nature. "What's most exciting is that the changes that occur in blood stem cells during aging are reversible, through signals carried by the blood itself. This means that the blood system offers a potential therapeutic avenue for age-related stem cell dysfunction," Amy J. Wagers, an associate professor in Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and an investigator at the Joslin Diabetes Center, said in a news release from the center.

Skin cells turned into brain cells in stem cell breakthrough – January 27, 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7085635/Skin-cells-turned-into-brain-cells-in-stem-cell-breakthrough.html
Scientists used just three genes to make the identity switch, which was achieved without an in-between stem cell stage. The breakthrough could "revolutionise the future of human stem cell therapy" for the regeneration of brains, said the researchers. In the past, normal cells have been coaxed into changing function by first turning them into "induced" stem cells. These have similar properties to stem cells taken from embryos, giving them the potential to become any kind of tissue in the body.
The new research went a step further by transforming mouse skin cells straight into functional neurons, while by-passing the stem cell process. Dr Marius Wernig, who co-led the team from Stanford University School of Medicine in California, said: "We actively and directly induced one cell type to become a completely different cell type. "These are fully functional neurons. They can do all the principal things that neurons in the brain do."

The Human Genome and Patient Privacy: A Proposal to Expand Protections for Patients and Family Members
http://studentpulse.com/articles/132/the-human-genome-and-patient-privacy-a-proposal-to-expand-protections-for-patients-and-family-members
As medical and biological technology has progressed in recent years, concerns have been raised about the privacy implications of genetic records that can identify individuals and predict future conditions to which they are predisposed. According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, genetic material has special privacy concerns for three reasons: the ease with which it can be collected; its ability to reveal information about not just the subject, but also their family members; and the fact that it can point towards future medical conditions (2009, Overview). As of last year, legislation prohibits employers and health insurers from discriminating against individuals based on their genetic records, but offers little regulation of who can require genetic testing and what they can do with the records afterwards (EPIC, 2009). Further problems are created by the fact that private corporations and universities have patented approximately 20 percent of the human genome (ACLU, 2009), forcing medical professionals and individuals to use those companies’ services with no control over what will be done with the results of their tests.


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Direct-to-Consumer Genomics, Social Networking, and Confidentiality
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792564/?tool=pmcentrez
The social networking business ventures described by Lee and Crawley (2009) in their target article “Research 2.0: Social Networking and DTC Genomics” combine two twenty-first century inventions, direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing and internet-based social networking (e.g. Facebook, MySpace). Private companies, such as 23andme, are marketing genomic testing services to consumers, including ancestry tests, normal trait tests, disease tests, and tests for over 600,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The companies also allow consumers to post their genomic and health information on a personal website and share it with other interested parties, such as other members of the social network (i.e. friends), family members, and researchers. According to Lee and Crawley, this combination of social networking and genetic testing represents a trend toward democratization and openness in genomic information that can promote consumer empowerment and innovation in biomedical research.

Government response to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Genomic Medicine
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_110004
The House of Lords, Science and Technology Committee, Genomic Medicine Inquiry Report has been timely, following on from the Department’s Progress Review of April 2008 into the Genetics White Paper, "Our inheritance, our future - realising the potential of genetics in the NHS", published in June 2003. The Government response to the Lords report sought the views from a wide range of scientific and healthcare professionals. The response reinforces the Governments commitment to genetics research and aims to maintain our position as a world-leader in associated health research, development and innovation. It clearly sets out how we will continue to ensure the NHS is ready for future developments and that new technologies are properly developed and translated into clinical practice