Food and Drug Administration Acting Director Frank Torti announced Monday in a podcast the creation of a new position in the Office of Chief Scientist: the Senior Genomics Advisor. Dr. Liz Mansfield, a scientist who has worked on scientific policy [...]
WEISS'S NOTEBOOK
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has deemed a drug from a genetically engineered animal to be safe and effective even though the agency has not yet decided what the rules for such approvals should be.
Personalized genetic testing can tell us about our physical traits, but what can it tell us about psychology? In this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, Harvard professor Steven Pinker combines a narrative of personal genetic discovery with some insight into [...]
A Turkish opposition leader has accused President Abdullah Gül of secret Armenian ancestry as the reason for his failure to reject a campaign to apologize for Turkey’s genocidal war against Armenians in the early 20th century. Republican People’s Party Deputy Canan Aritman demands that the president submit to a DNA test. But one would think that any Turkish political leader seeking to distance Turks from a holocaust would want to avoid racial biology as an explanation for anything.
Copy number variation refers to the fact that the number of copies of a gene, or deletions from sequences within a person’s DNA, along with the placement of those copies or deletions, contributes to his or her inherited characteristics. That is, the copies or deletions are themselves genetic information. Using sequencing methods, researchers can identify the variation in sequence patterns across a population. Spotting those variations is one challenge, but associating them with observable characteristics is another matter altogether.
WEISS'S NOTEBOOK
Whether by DNA manipulation or old-fashioned selective breeding, we engineer our food. Is it time to get over it?
WEISS'S NOTEBOOK
It will be an uphill battle to justify some of the upfront costs of the personalized medicine revolution, given the technical, political, and educational hurdles that stand between where we are and where we want to get: to a place with better care that costs less.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
The international community is developing policies that support embryonic stem cell research and embryo screening for medical purposes, but oppose human reproductive cloning, embryo screening for non-medical purposes, and genetic “enhancement.”
GENETICS
The first stop on the road to a healthcare revolution: saliva-collection parties. But as the nascent direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry grows, what can consumers really expect to learn from these services?
Earlier this week, Complete Genomics announced that it will offer complete human genome sequencing for the low, low price of $5000. But as the blog Genetic Future points out, in this industry, profits will to flow to companies that can offer the best interpretation of genetic information, not just the fastest and cheapest sequencing.
SCIENCE, CULTURED
It’s entirely possible for research to thrive even as the influence and relevance of science, in policy and to the average citizen, decline. Reflections on a dramatic conversation to elevate science in America.
About two million patients take warfarin, or coumadin, each year to prevent blood clotting during medical procedures. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services invited public commentary on whether Medicare should fund genetic tests to determine a patient’s warfarin response. This possible change in policy might save thousands of lives and highlights the need for a more comprehensive approach to the field of personalized medicine.
STEM CELLS
In the past year, stem cell research has taken great strides forward. Advocates and researchers alike are pushing for the federal government to expand its support.
Today the FDA released its long-awaited—and in some quarters, long feared—proposed new rules for marketing foods from animals that have been genetically engineered to have particular traits.
At the beginning of the month, NIH pulled pooled GWAS data from its website and began encouraging other institutions to follow suit, because a team of scientists have figured out just how to identify a single person’s DNA from a sample of hundreds.
LIFE SCIENCES AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Americans know that the future fortunes of the country rest on scientific and technological advances, so Mr. President, let’s take biomedical science policy seriously.
LIFE SCIENCES
The FBI’s case against Bruce Ivins summons mythical fears of science as a perilous ethical endeavor—and that’s a threat to the image of scientists everywhere.
A quick look at the issues making the rounds on the science blogs this week.
STEM CELLS
An expert panel at Stanford University has determined that nearly one quarter of the colonies of human embryonic stem cells that the Bush administration had approved as ethically derived and eligible for study with federal funds do not meet Stanford’s ethics standards and should no longer be available to researchers there.
A quick look at the issues making the rounds on the science blogs this week.
Science Progress and American Progress's Doing What Works project teamed up to produce a set of policy proposals that the Obama administration and Congress can adopt to reinvest in the building blocks of American science, innovation, and economic competitiveness. Read the overview of the five reports.
Science Progress proceeds from the propositions that scientific inquiry is among the finest expressions of human excellence, that it is a crucial source of human flourishing, a critical engine of economic growth, and must be dedicated to the common good. Scientific inquiry entails global responsibilities. It should lead to a more equitable, safer, and healthier future for all of humankind.