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Supreme Court Rules Human Genes May Not Be Patented

Posted on 15. Juni 2013
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Translation“A naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for a unanimous court. But manipulating a gene to create something not found in nature is an invention eligible for patent protection.The case concerned patents held by Myriad Genetics, a Utah company, on genes that correlate with increased risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Believe it or not USA Today was out fast with a long story on this issue with quotes and everything. Here’s the full text of the decision. Needless to say this …

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Citizen researchers help unlock European genetic heritage

Posted on 26. Juli 2012
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TranslationA University of Sheffield academic is helping a team of citizen scientists to carry out crucial research into European genetic heritage. Citizen Scientists are not required to have a scientific background or training, but instead they possess a passion for the subject and are increasingly being empowered by the scientific community to get involved in research. Dr Andy Grierson, from the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), has helped a team of citizen scientists from Europe and North America to identify vital new clues to tell the story of Europe’s genetic history. Dr Grierson explained: “Understanding European history …

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Genes can be criminogenic

Posted on 28. Juni 2012
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TranslationAs a follow-up to my post below, I just wanted to check some recent literature on crime and heritability. I found this, Heritability, Assortative Mating and Gender Differences in Violent Crime: Results from a Total Population Sample Using Twin, Adoption, and Sibling Models: Research addressing genetic and environmental determinants to antisocial behaviour suggests substantial variability across studies. Likewise, evidence for etiologic gender differences is mixed, and estimates might be biased due to assortative mating. We used longitudinal Swedish total population registers to estimate the heritability of objectively measured violent offending (convictions) in classic twin (N = 36,877 pairs), adoptee-parent (N …

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Aging Is Recorded in Our Genes

Posted on 12. Juni 2012
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Translation“The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven’t changed,” wrote the late novelist Doris Lessing. “Your body changes, but you don’t change at all.” From a genetic point of view, there is a lot of truth in that statement: As we age, the core of our biological being—the sequence of our DNA, which makes up our genes—remains the same. Yet recent research suggests that more subtle chemical changes to our DNA occur as we age. Now, a comparison of the DNA of a newborn baby with that of a centenarian shows that the scope of …

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Genes, environment and responsibility for behavior

Posted on 24. April 2012
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TranslationGenomics Forum seminar – 3 November 2011 http://bit.ly/vU1uw1 ‘Whatever genes one has it is preferable that you are prevented from going around stabbing people’: Genes, environment and responsibility for behaviour. Mairi Levitt – Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/faculty/profiles/Mairi-Levitt Abstract: Research into genes associated with violent and antisocial behaviour has raised concerns that an individual’s responsibility for criminal acts might be called into question on the basis of his (sic) genes or because of a combination of genes with specific environmental factors. Such concern is valid since lawyers have already used, or attempted to use, …

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Genes may travel from plant to plant to fuel evolution

Posted on 29. Februar 2012
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TranslationEvolutionary biologists at Brown University and the University of Sheffield have documented for the first time that plants swap genes from plant to plant to fuel their evolutionary development. The researchers found enzymes key to photosynthesis had been shared among plants with only a distant ancestral relationship. The genes were incorporated into the metabolic cycle of the recipient plant, aiding adaptation. Results appear in Current Biology. Quelle: Genes may travel from plant to plant to fuel evolution.

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