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23andMe will offer your genetic data to researchers (with your consent)
The genetic samples you send to 23andMe aren't just useful for discovering your roots or potential illnesses -- they could soon help pharmaceutical research, too. The company has struck a deal that opens its DNA research platform to Pfizer's scientists, letting them use the data to quickly find links between genes and certain conditions or traits. The two firms will also partner on genome-level studies and trials, such as one that will ask for 5,000 volunteers to help understand the genetic properties of lupus.
Future pacemakers might be completely biological
It's pretty amazing that humanity has invented a small electrical device that can be used to ensure a heart keeps a steady beat, but pacemakers have to be maintained, replaced -- sometimes they can even become infected. Researchers say they're working on a less invasive solution: a "biological pacemaker." It's a form of gene therapy that implants the heart with a gene-carrying virus that creates a "sino-atrail node," a collection of neurons that acts as a natural metronome for the body's most important muscle.
Sorry, folks: Study says musical talent mostly comes from your genes
We like to imagine that musical talent is just a matter of putting in enough hours. The Beatles became superstars because they spent years honing their craft in Hamburg, right? Well, maybe not. A recently published study from the Karolinska Institute's Miriam Mosing suggests that you need the right genes to become a true maestro. The research compared thousands of identical and fraternal twins to see whether lots of practice improves a person's ability to detect changes in melody, pitch and rhythm. Unfortunately, it didn't make a lick of difference for the identical twins; they had the same level of appreciation, regardless of how much time a given twin spent performing.
IBM sends Watson on a genetic quest to find the best cancer treatments
Sure, IBM's Watson crunches data for mobile apps and powers food trucks, but its owners are constantly looking for important studies that can put its cognitive computing expertise to the test. With the recent announcement of a clinical trial studying ways to deliver personalized care to brain cancer patients, the Jeopardy-conquering supercomputer appears to have found that next major challenge. In collaboration with New York Genome Center, Watson will be tasked with trawling archives of medical literature and clinical data, using its patten recognition skills to identify the best cancer treatments based on a patient's genetic make-up. Teams of scientists had manually undertaken the process before, but it's exactly the kind of problem Watson was designed to help solve. IBM says it will begin a trial later this year and hopes to open its findings to doctors across the world.
Family of Henrietta Lacks finally gets rights to her cells, 62 years after they were taken
While 31-year-old Henrietta Lacks laid in a hospital bed, dying of cervical cancer, doctors took two samples of the tumor cells growing inside her. 62 years later, those cells are still growing and have served as the foundation for countless experiments, including vaccine development and drug safety trials. Problem is, Henrietta Lacks had no idea this had happened, and neither did her family until 1973, when a scientist called to ask for blood samples from her children as part of a genetic experiment. For the last 40 years not much has changed, researchers have continued to cultivate millions, if not billions or trillions, Mrs. Lacks' cells, while her family has sought information, a portion of the proceeds and, most importantly, control over her genetic legacy. Now, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has returned control of the cell line to her descendants, including granddaughter Jeri Lack Whye. The primary impetus was the family's privacy. One scientist managed to generate a rather full report of personal information about Lacks and her family after just a few minutes with some of her endlessly reproducing cells. This prompted the NIH to work out an agreement with her family that gives them partial control over the cell line. When companies request access to the genome, which is stored on NIH servers, the family will be consulted and asked for their consent before the data is delivered. There will be no financial compensation for the decades of profit made by medical institutions off their genetic heritage, but at least they'll have some say in just who can go poking around in the family genes. Photo courtesy of The Henrietta Lacks Foundation
MIT crafts analog circuits from living bacteria
Previous work on using organisms as circuitry has usually involved shoehorning parts of the digital world into a very analog environment. MIT has just found an approach that uses the subtlety of the natural world to its advantage: the circuits themselves are analog. By combining genes that produce similar molecules in response to different inputs, the school's scientists have created bacterial cells that perform basic math -- the exact quantity or ratio of a given molecule is the answer. The approach offers a much wider range of results than a binary circuit (10,000 versus 2), and it exploits the cell enzymes' inherent ratio awareness to do some of the hard work. MIT wants more variety in genetic ingredients before it can produce a truly universal system, but its work could lead to organic sensors that are much simpler and more precise than their digital peers.
Amazon stores 1,700 human genomes in the cloud
Not content with speeding up web browsing and hosting federal data, Amazon Web Services are now helping in the fight against disease. Bezos' crew is donating a chunk of free cloud storage to the 1000 Genomes project, which aims to make it easier for scientists to search for genetic variations linked to diseases. These gene-hunters can also use Amazon's Elastic Cloud Compute service to analyze data and discover patterns, although those functions won't come gratis. The DNA sequences of 1,700 mostly anonymous Homo sapiens from around the world have already been logged, but the project has to upload another 1,000 samples before it meets statistical requirements. If it ever needs fresh volunteers, perhaps a free USB gene sequencer and a Prime subscription might do the trick?
Genetic discrimination ban edges closer to reality
By a fairly wide 420-3 margin, the House of Representatives gave a nearly unanimous thumbs-up to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which would "prohibit employers from using genetic information or test results when making employment and health benefits decisions" if it gets a similar nod of approval from the Senate. Fortunately for supporters, the Senate has been known to look fondly upon similar legislation in the past, and if the bill becomes law, health insurers couldn't use "genetic information to set premiums," nor could they require customers to submit genetic tests. Essentially, this could ensure that any future human mutation hacks you inflict on yourself, or more frightening, any robotic humanoid whose genes would find it out, will be safe from scrutiny come interview time. It's about time to order up that oh-so-keen intelligent carpet, right, hiring managers?[Via Wired]
