Welcome to Gene Genie #24: with a heavy emphasis on Personal Genetics

The previous Gene Genie was hosted at DNAdirect Talk and it is still fresh, so go have a look if you have not already. The next Gene Genie will be hosted at My Biotech Life. By the way, the Gene Genie logo was created by Ricardo at My Biotech Life — see the other award winning artwork here.

If you wish to submit a post for the next Gene Genie, you may use the handy-dandy submission form.

And, now, on with the show:

Did you ever wonder How many knocked out genes in Knock Out mice? at molecular B(io)LOG(y)

One would assume that KO mice harbour only the mutation that was introduced by homologous recombination in ES-cells. However, this is unlikely. Depending on the genetic background (129SV, C57BL/6, Balb/c etc.) mice with the very same mutation often display phenotypes of different severity which may range from lack of phenotype to lethality. This is due to allelic differences in other loci that arose through genetic drift during inbreeding and were fixed in the course of the generation of the different inbred lines. Thus, beside the mutation introduced by the investigator a knock out line may harbour additional genes that are inactivated.

Do it your self with the At-Home DNA Test For Bipolar Disorder by Dr. Deb.

Psynomics , the first company to offer diagnostic testing for mental illness, is causing a stir in the health field. They offer two genetic tests to diagnose Bipolar Disorder on its website, along with descriptions, references and instructions for individuals and doctors.

Take a trip From Metabolism to Oncogenes and Back – Part I at The Daily Transcript

Here is a brief history lesson on how cancer was viewed by cell biologists over the last hundred years. Today I’ll talk about how our views changed from metabolism to oncogenes, tomorrow (or the day after) I’ll close the loop by explaining how metabolism came back into the picture.

According to Razib Uyghurs are hybrids. Read all about it at Gene Expression

Another paper is out which falls under the category of using genetics to understand human history; Analysis of Genomic Admixture in Uyghur and Its Implication in Mapping Strategy

Everybody wants a Genome Projector – zoomable user interface for molecular biology as described by My Biotech Life

I ran across this interesting tool today called Genome Projector. It’s a creative application that uses the Google Maps API to render visual genomic maps with a load of detailed information.

Genes are not enough. You also need Genes and the Environment – Epigenetic from EverythingHealth

How genes interact with the environment to cause disease has been a mystery to scientists. But now, the field of Epigenetics is starting to give clues that will help with cancer and other diseases.

How does one go about Integrating genetic medicine into doctors’ surgeries, explained at Genetics & Health

>Following my recent article titled “Genetic testing – ‘recreational genomics’ or the future of diagnostics”, I queried why doctors were finding it challenging to provide their patients with adequate information on genetic testing and I questioned whether there should be increased availability of training courses to help support doctors.

It is so tragic when DNA sequencing errors hit home, a story from Discovering Biology in a Digital World

I have always known that DNA sequencing errors occur. This is why people build tools for measuring the error rate and why quality measurements are so useful for determining which data to use and which data to believe. But, some of the downstream consequences didn’t really hit home for me until a recent project. This project involves having students clone and sequence uncharacterized genes from genomic DNA. My part of the project was to do some research and write the bioinformatics section of the student lab manual.

The shortest post on genes evah! (But a good one) is Surf Venter’s genome at Genomicron

Pssssst. Wanna check out Venter’s genome?

A special issue of JAMA has Gene associations galore, discussed at Spoonful of medicine

This week’s issue of JAMA struck me as pretty interesting. They normally publish stuff that’s too clinical or epidemiological for my taste and in comparison to what we publish, but this time they had a themed issue on genomics with four articles reporting associations between gene variants and diseases of different systems.

Medicine gets personal with Consumer Genomics and Personalized Medicine, only at Eye on DNA

Pharmaceutical companies are searching through their dusty shelves and archives to find drugs in abandoned pipelines that may be potentially effective in groups of people defined by their genetic make-up. The Wall Street Journal reports that personalized medicine is gathering speed…

500 Hospitals want to know…. about your genes, according to Gene Sherpas

I just left a conference call where I was the invited guest panelist along with Robert Resta CGC. The Advisory Board Company and The Innovations Center presented an Issue Brief entitled-The Genetic Testing Frontier: Impact on Clinical Care, Market Opportunities. Hundreds of hospitals were online wondering how they too can get a piece of the action…..

“I Don’t Need No Board-Certified Medical Geneticist” just didn’t have the same ring according to Genomeboy.com

Personal genomics has taken a bit of a beating lately, mainly at the hands of the biomedical establishment. One day soon, I promise I will take up these issues on their merits. Meantime, it seems to me there’s only one appropriate response: Theme Song!

Who Do You Trust … With Your Genetic Information? … PredictER Blog wants to know

For those of us interested in the progress of predictive health research, who “we” trust is a key question. If participants and the community at large, including the legislators representing the community, do not trust the researchers who form biobanks and enroll participants in longitudinal studies, support will decline: the money will begin to dry up, adverse legislations will be passed, and (most importantly) potential research participants will do something else with their time and good will. Researchers will be relieved, therefore, to discover…

The G.I.N.A. could be a bad thing for healthcare., or so says Synthesis

The DNA Network batted this issue around several months ago, but it’s coming back in the form of a Letter to Nature….His argument is that there’s no guarantee that making insurance companies remain ignorant of a patient’s genetic risks will prevent discrimination against those who have the unlucky combination of poor economic status and genetic risk factors….I think he’s right.

How to interpret a genome wide association study, a recommendation by Mailund on the Internet.

Politics and Genealogy collide in the test tupbe with DNA Testing of New York’s New Governor David Paterson, reported by The Genetic Genealogist

…Gov. Paterson … is probably the first governor in the United States to have undergone genetic genealogy testing, and might be the highest government official to do so and then speak openly about it.

More on Personalized Genetics: The User Aspect at ScienceRoll

As personalized genetics is still rising, users start to write more and more posts about these genetic services. And this user aspect should and will play a major role in the future of genomic medicine.

So what happens next … I Have The Results of My Genetic Genealogy Test, Now What?

So you’ve signed up at one of those fancy new genome sites, sent your spit in and have now received the information from your DNA testing. Now, a couple questions start popping up. What’s the next step? What does all this information mean?

And, now a word from the behavioral geneticists: Genetics of Behavior: Fire Ants here, at Greg Laden’s Blog

A common presumption is that behavior is part of phenotype, and since phenotype arises from genotype (plus/minus Reaction Norm), that there can be a study of “behavioral genetics.” This is certainly an overstatement (or oversimplification) for organisms with extensive and/or complex neural systems, such as humans and mice. Neural systems probably evolved (not initially, but eventually) to disassociate behavior with the kind of pre-determined micro-management of behavior that a simple gene-behavior link requires. However, in organisms with neural systems the size of the period at the end of this sentence, we often do see cases of allelic variations causing behavioral variation in the whole organism.

Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:

In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle or Paperback
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