DNA
Latest
23andMe plans to use your genetic data to create new drugs
For over a year now, 23andMe has been stuck in a regulatory quagmire with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although it's still able to sell its personal DNA kits, the company is effectively banned from offering health-related genetic tests in the US. A few weeks ago it was given the go-ahead for a single check, a rare disorder called Bloom syndrome, but it's only a small step towards the broader health reports it provided before. While it waits for wider FDA approval, 23andMe has decided to enter the drugs market. The company already works with major pharmaceutical firms including Pfizer and Genentech, but now it's prepared to go it alone. The startup has accrued a vast amount of health-related information from its users, so there's an obvious opportunity to apply that database to the field of medicine. Instead of just looking for health-related ailments, and offering users the results, 23andMe wants to go one step further and develop the cures too.
23andMe gets FDA approval, but only to test rare Bloom syndrome
For over a year now, 23andMe has been effectively banned from offering its US customers health-related genetic tests. The company is still selling its personal DNA kits, but the information it can provide is limited to ancestry-related reports and raw genetic data. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was behind the original clampdown in 2013, but this week it's given the company its blessing for a new test. With the fresh approval, 23andMe can now offer to look for signs of Bloom syndrome, a rare disorder which is characterized by short stature, sun-sensitive skin and increased cancer risk. While this is a specific test, rather than the broader health reports it offered before, 23andMe calls it an "important first step" to offering detailed genetic advice in the US once more.
The UK inches closer toward making babies from three people's DNA
The UK's House of Commons overwhelmingly voted in favor of a law that would allow scientists to genetically engineer babies from the DNA of three people. Before your mind wanders to some of the more... salacious possibilities, the technique -- a spin on traditional in vitro fertilization -- is meant to help women with mitochondrial disease have families without fear of passing the illness down.
Genetic 'glue' helps make 3D-printed organs
No, you're not looking at a dessert gone horribly wrong -- that might just be the future of synthetic organ transplants. Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a genetic "glue" that forms gels useful for 3D printing organic tissues. The key is using custom-designed, complementary DNA strands that bond just the way you'd like them. This flexibility would let hospitals and labs create organs that grow in a specific way, and take on specific structures. In short, it'd be relatively easy to print the exact organ you need, and even customize it for the recipient if necessary.
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.
Russia wants to collect the DNA of every creature
Institutions have already been amassing huge DNA collections to catalog the world's creatures, but Moscow State University might just top them all. It's planning to build "Noah's Ark," a repository for the genes of every creature, living or extinct -- as long as the genes are readable, they'll either be cryogenically frozen or stored as pure data. Not surprisingly, it's going to be a massive undertaking in more ways than one. The Russian government is spending the equivalent of $194 million on the facility, which should occupy an enormous 166 square miles when it's finished in 2018.
The UK will decode the genes of 100,000 people to help fight cancer
The UK is about to launch one of the more ambitious attempts at using genetic research to fight cancer and other nasty diseases. The National Health Service's England branch plans to collect and sequence the genomes of 100,000 people in hopes of understanding both how DNA affects these sicknesses (such as gene-specific causes or symptoms) and what doctors can do to test and treat patients. The strategy will see the NHS run 11 specialized Genomic Medicine Centres across England, with more due in the future. So long as everything goes smoothly, the first recruits will sign up in February.
23andMe's £125 DNA testing service launches in the UK
While more and more technology companies are shifting their focus to include health tracking, none go quite as in-depth as 23andMe. The self-branded "personal genetics company" made its name in the US and Canada for mail-order DNA test kits that provide customers with an overview of their genetic ancestry and provide a risk assessments for certain diseases based on genetic data. That was until its very public spat with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which told 23andMe to stop offering disease analysis until it received the medical device classification it needed. The ban is still in place, but 23andMe has continued to offer (with approval) its ancestry-related reports and "uninterpreted raw genetic data" to customers.
DNA smeared on a rocket survives re-entry and tells of life's origins
Well, would you look at that: scientists have discovered that DNA can make it through the hellish ordeal of atmospheric re-entry after all. German and Swiss researchers dotted a rocket's grooves and screw heads with fragments of genetic blueprints to see how they'd fare in situations that could've led to the appearance of life on Earth. Scientific American notes that the 13-minute rocket trip might not perfectly represent how DNA might actually travel from one celestial body to the next (that'd be by meteor), but there is purpose here. What the experiment suggests is that even if the meteor's been scorched, that the material can survive at higher temperatures than previously expected, and as such this paints a better picture of just how resilient DNA is. What's next? Pushing the limits further and seeing exactly what it takes to kill the double helix -- we're pretty sure at least one rock band is itching to find out. [Image credit: Getty Images/OJO Images RF]
OK Go plans to release an album as DNA
Most bands release a new album as MP3s, and on both CD and vinyl. If you caught any of OK Go's music videos, you know they prefer to do things a little differently. In addition to the aforementioned formats, the band plans release its latest album Hungry Ghosts as DNA. Yep, that's right, nanograms of Deoxyribonucleic acid will carry the music. With the help of a biochemist from UCLA, the record's digital files -- basically a collection of ones and zeroes -- were translated into the genetic code. "Legally speaking, it's unclear whether we will be able to sell the DNA to anyone, or how we would physically get it to them," Kulash told The New Yorker. "This stuff is regulated really fucking heavily." For example, fans may see the DNA version of the album as a small vial with a few drops of water that carry copies of the tunes. "Obviously, it's an artistic gesture and a scientific project, not the most efficient way to actually buy our album," explained Kulash. [Photo credit: Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images]
Your own cells could one day 'spy' on you to track disease
Scientists from MIT have figured out how to hack living cells to store biological events around them. They modified E. Coli cells to generate so-called retrons -- a type of mutated single-strand DNA -- in response to stimuli like light or chemicals. Those lo-fi "memories" can then be read back to glean useful information using high-throughput DNA sequencing and other techniques. However, it works even better by scaling it up to billions of copies. Once the hacked cells reproduce, new ones start recording the events too, meaning scientists can track changes in an environment over time. The mutations can even be written and erased, meaning they could one day track the progress of a disease from directly inside your body, like a personal, benevolent NSA. [Image credit: Shutterstock/vitstudio]
Genome testing is now easy, fast and pretty
Genome testing gear doesn't get a lot of love. Like a lot of lab equipment, it tends to be ugly and unwieldy -- it's not designed with the same elegance as the smartphone in your pocket. Mercifully, the crew at Fluidigm appears to have solved those problems in one shot with its Juno genotyping machine. The Yves Behar-designed device is (dare we say it) pretty, and wouldn't look out of place sitting on a desk. It's also more intuitive, relying on a large, simple touchscreen interface instead of keyboards and tiny displays.
Google Genomics can store your entire genome online for a mere $25 a year
Google's been working on its latest project for about a year and a half ago: it's service that will store entire copies of genome. This isn't something Google Drive can cope with - decoding DNA involves a lot of data. According to Technology Review, in raw data, one person's genome weighs in at around 100 gigabytes. The plan is house all that DNA data online, in big 'ole clouds where scientists will be able to run virtual experiments and collaborate with each other on bigger (hopefully disease-curing) projects. Google is battling against the likes of Amazon and Microsoft to store expansive medical data like this: the Mountain View company charges scientists and researchers $25 a year for storing a single human genome -- although you'll have to pay a little more to fiddle around with data.
MinION USB-sized DNA sequencer goes through real-world testing
Back in 2012, a UK company called Oxford Nanopore announced a chewing gum packet-sized DNA sequencer, something that people found hard to believe since rival machines can be as big as fridges. After dealing with technical issues and bugs (as well as being accused of launching vaporware), Oxford has finally begun making that device called MinION available to beta testers. Several of the testers (mainly scientists doing research in educational institutions) reported that it only exhibits a 60 to 85 percent accuracy. While that's nowhere near more traditional sequencers' 99.99 percent accuracy, many of the testers still believe that the device could be a game changer due to its size and relatively affordable price. Traditional sequencers could cost as much as $1 million, while the testers bought their MinIONs for only $1,000 each.
One Codex wants to make searching DNA as easy as using Google
Once upon a time, sequencing your genome was a prohibitively expensive proposition -- mapping out your genetic code cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and the practical applications of the data were few and far between. These day the process is so affordable that health care professionals are sitting on petabytes of genome data. Making use of that data, however, is another problem. The current genome searching algorithm, called BLAST, isn't particularly fast. A new firm hopes to change that, and is introducing One Codex: a genetic search platform that can index DNA base pairs 1,500 faster than contemporary databases.
More dinosaurs had feathers than we thought
Realistically, we'll probably never successfully clone a dinosaur -- but if we ever do, we may be surprised by how the beast turns out. A fossil found in Siberia threatens to change our perception of what history's giant lizards may have looked like. We already know that not all dinosaurs were scales and teeth -- fossils from the 1990s show that some carnivorous theropods may have worn feathery coats -- but the new fossil suggests that far more dinos were covered in birdlike feathers than previously suspected. The Siberian discovery suggests that plant-eating dinos may have had feathers too.
Google wants to define a healthy human with its new baseline genetic study
Google's got a big new project and it's you. Well, not just you, but a genetic and molecular study of humanity that aims to grasp at what a healthy human should be. It's in its early days, collecting anonymous data from 175 people, but it plans to expand to thousands later. The project is headed up by molecular biologist Andrew Conrad, who pioneered cheap HIV tests for blood-plasma donations. According to the WSJ, the team at Google X current numbers between 70 and 100, encompassing experts in physiology, biochemistry, optics, imaging and molecular biology. The Baseline project will apparently take in hundreds of different samples, with Google using its information processing talents to expose biomarkers and other patterns - the optimistic result hopefully being faster ways of diagnosing diseases. Biomarkers has typically been used with late-stage diseases, as these studies have typically used already-sick patients. "He gets that this is not a software project that will be done in one or two years," said Dr. Sam Gambhir, who is working with Dr. Conrad on the project. "We used to talk about curing cancer and doing this in a few years. We've learned to not say those things anymore."
Lab-grown 'real' cheese made without milk
Real vegan cheese. An oxymoron, but maybe not for long. A group of biohackers, which is a thing now, reckon they can make cheese without milk. Better still, it apparently tastes like proper, legitimate cheese, and not some vegan-friendly substitute mess. The SF-based iGEM group say it's made from baker's yeast. The team is able to make cheese proteins using genetic sequences found in mammals, inserting the DNA blueprints into the aforementioned yeast, and it's all vegan-compatible because it doesn't need animal products to make the proteins.
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.
Artist stuffs Wikipedia into apple DNA to create real trees of knowledge
If DNA is code, and code can be art, then DNA can be art... right? Harvard artist in residence Joe Davis certainly thinks so. He's working on a project, Malus Ecclesia, that will insert Wikipedia entries into the non-essential genetic strands of apples. The effort will translate English Wikipedia articles to DNA's four nucleotide letters (A, C, G and T) and use bacteria to insert the resulting text into saplings. When the saplings are grafted on to apple stock and grow up, they'll bear fruit with that genetic data (and therefore the articles) intact, producing very real trees of knowledge.
