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Daily Archives: June 27, 2017
Bitcoin, ether lead cryptocurrency slide – TechCentral
Posted: June 27, 2017 at 6:51 am
Bitcoin declined as much as 17% on Monday, while smaller competitor ether continued to slide after experiencing a flash crash last week, raising concern about mainstream acceptance of the digital currencies.
Bitcoin slumped to as low as US$2 255.44 in intraday trading, the least since 15 June. Ether, the virtual currency based on the ethereum blockchain, plunged 26% to $221.45, according to data compiled by Coindesk.com. And ripple, the third largest digital currency based on market cap, has dropped about 13% to around $0.26, according to prices compiled by CoinMarketCap.com.
Ether slumped on 21 June after congestion on its network slowed transactions, causing some cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bitfinex and ShapeShift to halt transactions.
Coinbases GDAX exchange experience a flash crash, as price slippage sent ether to trade around $0.10, said GDAX vice president Adam White, who on Monday decided to reverse an earlier decision not to refund flash-crash victims. He said the crash on GDAX was instigated by a multimillion-dollar market sell order.
The two biggest digital currencies have still surged in value this year. Ether started the year around $8, meaning even with its current drop, the price has doubled many times over. Bitcoin has advanced about 150% year to date.
When people fixate on price movements over a single day, my recommendation is zoom out of the price chart and look at the broader trend, said Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Centre, a Washington-based nonprofit research firm focusing on cryptocurrencies.
Blockchain could either catch on as the rails for global finance, or not, so valuations for a digital currency like bitcoin can either go to zero or be worth much more than it is today, so these assets are bound to be very volatile as peoples calculations of what they are worth can be all over the map.
Coinbase was down earlier on Monday, according to online forums on ether, which could explain some of the losses, as this comes after other exchanges temporarily suspended trading last week due to a bottleneck on ether orders.
The steeper decline in ether than bitcoin means ethers market cap at $25bn is now just about 60% of bitcoins, down from about 80%, when ether climbed over $400 two weeks ago. The rapid growth of the ethereum network had prompted speculation that ether would overtake bitcoin to become the biggest cryptocurrency as soon as this year, a phenomenon known as the flippening.
Chip makers that had benefited from cryptocoin miners last week are now giving up some of those gains. Nvidia dropped for the third consecutive day, slumping 1.1% to $152.15/share. Advanced Micro Devices dropped 0.6% to $14.08. Reported by Alexandria Arnold and Camila Russo, (c) 2017 Bloomberg LP
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Bitcoin, ether lead cryptocurrency slide - TechCentral
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Cryptocurrency: How We Hook the Masses – CoinDesk
Posted: at 6:51 am
Rich Svinkin is the CEO of Jaywalk.me, a startup that motivates increased physical activity with brick-and-mortar retail rewards.
In this opinion piece,Svinkin argues that using cryptocurrencies for rewards schemes can demonstrate the value of the technology and ultimately help bring mass adoption.
Before the hype and before the price explosions of the past year, I sat down and looked at cryptocurrencies from a UXperspective.
That post, published on CoinDesk,offered a simple central premise: the entire bitcoin project was envisioned, designed, built and released as a peer-to-peer value exchange system. It wasn't supposed to be a standalone asset class or a messaging system for banks.
A year later, we're in the midst of a hype-ridden initial coin offering (ICO) explosion. ICOs are another use case in the UX quiver, one we can add to the progress of the last few years. The ICOs (I prefer to call them token sales) are a great engine of growth but they do not achieve our ultimate goal: adoption of cryptocurrency by the masses.
Prior to Jobs and Wozniak, computers were the domain of engineers, hobbyists, large corporations and government agencies. The dominant framework for users to interact with these machines, the command line, ensured low user adoption.
As Neal Stephenson noted, however, the wizards who held sway over the simple cursor and text interfaces later built the tools to drive mass adoption. From the command line, we moved into something relatable and simple, and, in the process, we hid all of the piping behind wall after wall of abstraction.
I don't want to understate how big of a leap this was for my generation. You mean we can make the screen do what we want like an arcade game? We can "save" what we're doing and come back to it later? We can put stuff on a disk and put it on another computer? Wow!
After we were hooked, we started learning heuristics for the things we'd need to master to get more out of the experience. We started implicitly understanding what a KB meant. We grew to "kinda know" how much would fit on a floppy disk.
Some of us started learning how to make simple animations and games. The computer was at first a toy then a tool.
I argue that, in the crypto space, we're at the point in our evolution where the command-line is giving way to new and more generalized heuristics with similarly explosive opportunities. Right now, the equivalent of the command line are things like wallet addresses, private keys, cold storage, and other obfuscating elements.
I wrote a year ago that I think we need a Steve Jobs in this space. No one has yet stepped up to the plate.
Even if regular people were to learn all the terms of art, master using the exchanges, grow comfortable with identity verification and currency exchange rates, and accept the long wait times in transferring fiat in/out, we'd still have a problem that would keep the bulk of the planet off the chain in a meaningful way: risk.
Modern operating systems mitigate risk immensely. Every program we use has some sort of backup system and now you rarely lose work. With cryptocurrencies, the existential threat of losing everything is still there.
The best way to deal with risk, at least at the start, is to try to eliminate it. We must not treat crypto like a competitive currency at least not now. Instead we must treat it like a reward, something new.
We must allow people to buy it, but also allow folks to earn it, with their time, effort, attention, with non-monetary capital. Don't force people to have to buy it with fiat.
Instead, let them earn it.
There are folks that are on a rewards-oriented path: Steemit, Brave, Bitwalking, Metal and others.
This is going to be a growing trend in the months and years to come. All of them want to reward you for something Steemit for creating and engaging with digital content, Bitwalking just for walking. Brave is taking things to the next level: you get rewards just for using a secure browser and for engagement and attention.
Metal will reward you for converting, sending and spending.
All are trying to get to the same goal: they want the cryptocurrency they've issued to become valuable in the real world, to become the lifeblood of a new economy centered around a particular set of use cases.
The success of these products is dependent on ultimately hooking the masses via a rewards-based introduction points, miles, cash back these are notions we all get, just like I did 30 years ago with writing, drawing and reading on the Mac.
But the final step requires users to make that leap from rewards to currency for this revolution to get to the next level. And for that goal, I a true believer am very hopeful with this recent wave.
That said,I still have one hesitation. All of these solutions make progress on the various complexities and issues surrounding adoption.
But, the one thing they all do not do, is obfuscate the currency exchange problem inherent in forging ahead with something new right away. It can show the value of the new currency in terms of fiat, but even currency earned through effort will be at risk of losing credibility and lasting power.
There will always be fear that the $398 I have in crypto will one day be $0, or in anhour will be worth $118.
Sure, we could be at the start of a fiat currency collapse and not even know it, as the market cap of crypto currency rockets up. This may even be good for the whole system. But, even if the crypto world supersedes the money we know, it will be the option with the most perceived stability that ends up winning. Not the ones with the most speculative upside or interesting "applications."
Well know we've "won" when a cryptocurrency becomes woven into the daily lives of the majority of people on earth. That people recognize finally that the fiat they know is also volatile and purchasing power is dynamic and ever changing, and cryptocurrency has many other benefits the analog doesnt have. Or simply that a cryptocurrency finally becomes more stable so people run to it to escape losing all their value in government-backed money as a crisis looms or is underway.
Until then, it's hard to say what weve accomplished truly, but the goal is ultimately that we move belief in fiat money to belief in cryptocurrency.
To me, the best way to start that transition is to get people used to and interested in this new phenomenon by utilizing familiar bridges like air miles and minimizing fear and risk to allow for everyday use to come to bear and even bring some fun to the strange world of cryptocurrencies.
Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Brave.
Mac computer image via Shutterstock
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk strives to offer an open platform for dialogue and discussion on all things blockchain by encouraging contributed articles. For more details on how you can submit an opinion or analysis article, view our Editorial Collaboration Guide or email [emailprotected].
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Zionsville Community High School student has entrepreneurial spirit – Current in Zionsville
Posted: at 6:49 am
By Mark Ambrogi
Grace Curry has embraced the entrepreneurial spirit.
Grace Curry displays the phone cases she sells through Violet Satin (Submitted photo).
Ive always been interested in making my own money as a child, selling jewelry, lemonade, inventing things, she said. I really enjoy being able to put the business together by myself, and I love marketing and advertising.
Curry, who just finished her sophomore year at Zionsville Community High School, is the founder of Violet Satin, an online company that sells iPhone cases for women and other phone accessories. The company ships to anywhere in the U.S., and customers have come from all across the nation.
Curry, who started the business in February 2016, said she designs some of the phone cases that are on her website, and the production comes from manufacturers online.
I have a website that is connected to my online website that creates custom-made products, Curry said.
It took approximately four to five months for her business to really become profitable, Curry said. Instagram is the primary source of promotion to her website. Violet Satin has more than 13,000 Instagram followers.
In addition to her business, Curry has a part-time job at Hot Box Pizza. A member of the Equality Club, among other clubs, Curry plans to join the cross country team in 2017. She competed in cross country in eighth grade.
Her plan is to major in biology and minor in business in college.
I have been into genetic engineering ever since I took biology in high school, and then genetics this year, she said. I am interested in using genetic engineering to further technology with food and medicine.
For more, visit violetsatin.com.
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Gene mutation linked to retinitis pigmentosa in Southwestern US Hispanic families – Medical Xpress
Posted: at 6:48 am
June 27, 2017
Thirty-six percent of Hispanic families in the U.S. with a common form of retinitis pigmentosa got the disease because they carry a mutation of the arrestin-1 gene, according to a new study from researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health.
Retinitis pigmentosa is a group of rare, genetic eye disorders in which the retina of the eye slowly degenerates. The disease causes night blindness and progressive loss of peripheral vision, sometimes leading to complete blindness. According to Stephen P. Daiger, Ph.D., senior author of the study, an estimated 300,000 people in the U.S. suffer from the disease, which gets passed down through families.
In the study published recently in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, UTHealth researchers found that in a U.S. cohort of 300 families with retinitis pigmentosa, 3 percent exhibited a mutation of the arrestin-1 gene. However, more than 36 percent of Hispanic families from the cohort exhibited the arestin-1 mutation and they all came from areas in the Southwestern U.S., such as Texas, Arizona and Southern California.
"When I started studying retinitis pigmentosa in 1985, we set out to find the 'one' gene that causes the disease. Thirty-three years later, we've found that more than 70 genes are linked to retinitis pigmentosa," said Daiger, a professor in the Human Genetics Center and holder of the Thomas Stull Matney, Ph.D. Professorship in Environmental and Genetic Sciences at UTHealth School of Public Health.
Some of the genes that cause retinitis pigmentosa are recessive, which means two mutations are required, and some are dominant, which means you only need one mutation. Arrestin-1 piqued Daiger's interest because that particular mutation is dominant while all previously found mutations in the gene are recessive. This unexpected finding shows that even a single mutation in the gene is sufficient to cause the disease.
Daiger and his team have identified the genetic cause of retinitis pigmentosa for 75 percent of families in their cohort. Possible treatments for some forms of retinitis pigmentosa are being tested but are still limited. However, the speed at which companies are developing gene therapies and small molecule therapies gives reason to hope, he said. Daiger and his collaborators have begun to connect some of the patients in the retinitis pigmentosa cohort to clinical trials that treat specific genes.
"I want our cohort families to know that even if there is not an immediate cure for their specific gene mutation, at this rate it won't be long until a therapy becomes available," said Daiger, who also holds the Mary Farish Johnston Distinguished Chair in Ophthalmology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.
Support for the study, titled "A novel dominant mutation in SAG, the arrestin-1 gene, is a common cause of retinitis pigmentosa in Hispanic families in the Southwestern United States," was provided by the William Stamps Farish Fund and the Hermann Eye Fund.
Explore further: Scientists discover gene tied to profound vision loss
More information: Lori S. Sullivan et al. A Novel Dominant Mutation in SAG, the Arrestin-1 Gene, Is a Common Cause of Retinitis Pigmentosa in Hispanic Families in the Southwestern United States, Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science (2017). DOI: 10.1167/iovs.16-21341
An exhaustive hereditary analysis of a large Louisiana family with vision issues has uncovered a new gene tied to an incurable eye disorder called retinitis pigmentosa, according to an examination led by scientists at The ...
Researchers have started a new gene therapy clinical trial to treat X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP), the most common cause of blindness in young people.
An international team of researchers has discovered that mutations in the human gene CWC27 result in a spectrum of clinical conditions that include retinal degeneration and problems with craniofacial and skeletal development. ...
Progressive development of night blindness and tunnel vision, sometimes from the early age of 2, are trademarks of retinitis pigmentosa. Being the most common inherited disorder of the retina, retinitis pigmentosa affects ...
Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and University of Iowa scientists have used a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR, to repair a genetic mutation responsible for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited condition ...
Researchers at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital with funding from Fight for Sight, in collaboration with a team from Baylor College of Medicine in the USA, have discovered a new retinitis pigmentosa ...
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Gene mutation linked to retinitis pigmentosa in Southwestern US Hispanic families - Medical Xpress
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Genomic sequencing may benefit parents of cancer patients – Baylor College of Medicine News (press release)
Posted: at 6:48 am
In a new paper recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology: Precision Oncology, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Childrens Hospital report that genomic sequencing information may be more valuable for families of pediatric cancer patients than has previously been recognized.
The paper reports results from the Baylor Advancing Sequencing in Childhood Cancer Care (BASIC3) study led by Baylors Dr. Sharon Plon, professor of pediatrics-oncology and molecular and human genetics; Dr. Will Parsons, associate professor of pediatrics-oncology and molecular and human genetics; and Dr. Amy McGuire, director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. The BASIC3 study evaluates the impact of incorporating a type of genomic sequencing called whole exome sequencing into the clinical care of children newly diagnosed with cancer being treated at Texas Childrens Cancer Center. This technology can reveal information about the genetics of the childs tumor as well as identify genes that the patient or parents may have that are associated with cancer, other diseases and conditions that would require immediate clinical action. Most parents also opted to find out if they or their child carry a gene for a disease that they could pass on to future generations. Through this study, investigators sought to understand what parents of newly diagnosed pediatric cancer patients think about receiving this type of information.
The BASIC3 research team interviewed more than 60 parents before and after they received their childs exome sequencing results. Parents described a wide range of ways in which they found the information valuable for their child, themselves and other family members. As expected, parents hoped that the information would improve their childs care through cancer treatment tailored to their childs specific cancer or through appropriate monitoring in the future. However, they also perceived benefit of whole exome sequencing even when it would not change the childs clinical care.
Concerns about how children and parents will react to genomic sequencing information as well as respect for the future rights of children to decide whether they want that information have led to a general consensus against disclosing sequencing information that does not have clear clinical utility, said McGuire, one of the principal investigators of the BASIC3 study. However, our study showed that parents of children with a serious illness found this information valuable for a wide variety of reasons, which raises questions about whether this consensus is appropriate for this population.
Parents in the BASIC3 study wanted to know where their childs cancer had come from and hoped that genomic sequencing would help them understand why this had happened to their family. They described relief from both guilt and worry upon finding that their childs disease was not caused by a known cancer-related gene. Parents who discovered their child had a genetic risk of cancer expressed that having that knowledge could help the child make their own reproductive decisions. In addition, some parents noted that the exome sequencing results prompted them to have the childs siblings and other family members receive genetic testing to assess their risk. If no genetic risk of cancer or other diseases was discovered, parents felt reassured of the health of their other children, including any potential children in the future.
On the whole, parents were remarkably positive about genomic sequencing, even if the results did not change their childs medical treatment, said Dr. Janet Malek, first author of the paper and associate professor of medicine and medical ethics at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. They found the information valuable for themselves and other family members in a broad range of ways. These results suggest that we need to think carefully about how we understand the risks and benefits of using this technology, when we should recommend its use and how we talk about it with patients and families.
The results from this interview study improve the understanding of parents perspectives of whole exome sequencing. Researchers and clinicians can use parents broad range of utility to re-evaluate how risks and benefits should be described and to inform decisions about using whole exome sequencing in clinical care. The Baylor team is planning to continue researching this topic with a new and larger longitudinal survey based-study across multiple sites in Texas that will compare the various benefits and concerns of receiving exome sequencing results. Currently, Malek and colleagues are analyzing what the roles of guilt, regret and parental responsibility have in how parents in the BASIC3 study perceive the value of their childs whole exome sequencing results.
Other contributors to this work include Dr. Melody Slashinski, Jill Robinson, Amanda Gutierrez, and Dr. Laurence McCullough. Drs. Plon, McGuire and Parsons are also members of the NCI-designated Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor. The BASIC3 study is a Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) program project supported by Grant No. 1U01HG006485 from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Cancer Institute.
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Genomic sequencing may benefit parents of cancer patients - Baylor College of Medicine News (press release)
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Mice provide insight into genetics of autism spectrum disorders – Medical Xpress
Posted: at 6:48 am
June 27, 2017 by David Slipher In this mouse cortex, a mutation in the CHD8 gene caused increased brain size, or megalencephaly, a condition also present in people with autism spectrum disorder. The colored sections correspond to different layers of the developing cortex. Credit: Alex Nord/UC Davis
While the definitive causes remain unclear, several genetic and environmental factors increase the likelihood of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, a group of conditions covering a "spectrum" of symptoms, skills and levels of disability.
Taking advantage of advances in genetic technologies, researchers led by Alex Nord, assistant professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior with the Center for Neuroscience at the University of California, Davis, are gaining a better understanding of the role played by a specific gene involved in autism. The collaborative work appears June 26 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
"For years, the targets of drug discovery and treatment have been based on an unknown black box of what's happening in the brain," said Nord. "Now, using genetic approaches to study the impact of specific mutations found in cases, we're trying to build a cohesive model that links genetic control of brain development with behavior and brain function."
The Nord laboratory studies how the genome encodes brain development and function, with a particular interest in understanding the genetic basis of neurological disorders.
Mouse brain models
There is no known specific genetic cause for most cases of autism, but many different genes have been linked to the disorder. In rare, specific cases of people with ASD, one copy of a gene called CHD8 is mutated and loses function. The CHD8 gene encodes a protein responsible for packaging DNA in cells throughout the body. Packaging of DNA controls how genes are turned on and off in cells during development.
Because mice and humans share on average 85 percent of similarly coded genes, mice can be used as a model to study how genetic mutations impact brain development. Changes in mouse DNA mimic changes in human DNA and vice-versa. In addition, mice exhibit behaviors that can be used as models for exploring human behavior.
Nord's laboratory at UC Davis and his collaborators have been working to characterize changes in brain development and behavior of mice carrying a mutated copy of CHD8.
"Behavioral tests with mice give us information about sociability, anxiety and cognition. From there, we can examine changes at the anatomical and cellular level to find links across dimensions," said Nord. "This is critical to understanding the biology of disorders like autism."
By inducing mutation of the CHD8 gene in mice and studying their brain development, Nord and his team have established that the mice experience cognitive impairment and have increased brain volume. Both conditions are also present in individuals with a mutated CHD8 gene.
New implications for early and lifelong brain development
Analysis of data from mouse brains reveals that CHD8 gene expression peaks during the early stages of brain development. Mutations in CHD8 lead to excessive production of dividing cells in the brain, as well as megalencephaly, an enlarged brain condition common in individuals with ASD. These findings suggest the developmental causes of increased brain size.
More surprisingly, Nord also discovered that the pathological changes in gene expression in the brains of mice with a mutated CHD8 continued through the lifetime of the mice. Genes involved in critical biological processes like synapse function were impacted by the CHD8 mutation. This suggests that CHD8 plays a role in brain function throughout life and may affect more than early brain development in autistic individuals.
While Nord's research centers on severe ASD conditions, the lessons learned may eventually help explain many cases along the autism spectrum.
Collaborating to improve understanding
Nord's work bridges disciplines and has incorporated diverse collaborators. The genetic mouse model was developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory using CRISPR editing technology, and co-authors Jacqueline Crawley and Jill Silverman of the UC Davis MIND Institute evaluated mouse behavior to characterize social interactions and cognitive impairments.
Nord also partnered with co-author Konstantinos Zarbalis of the Institute for Pediatric Regenerative Medicine at UC Davis to examine changes in cell proliferation in the brains of mice with the CHD8 mutation, and with Jason Lerch from the Mouse Imaging Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, to conduct magnetic resonance imaging on mouse brains.
"It's the act of collaboration that I find really satisfying," Nord said. "The science gets a lot more interesting and powerful when we combine different approaches. Together we were able to show that mutation to CHD8 causes changes to brain development, which in turn alters brain anatomy, function and behavior."
In the future, Nord hopes to identify how CHD8 packages DNA in neural cells and to determine the specific impacts to early brain development and synaptic function. Nord hopes that deep exploration of CHD8 mutations will ultimately yield greater knowledge of the general factors contributing to ASD and intellectual disability.
Explore further: Study shows connection between key autism risk genes in the human brain
More information: Andrea L Gompers et al. Germline Chd8 haploinsufficiency alters brain development in mouse, Nature Neuroscience (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nn.4592
Journal reference: Nature Neuroscience
Provided by: UC Davis
A new study reveals an important connection between dozens of genes that may contribute to autism, a major step toward understanding how brain development goes awry in some individuals with the disorder.
In a collaboration involving 13 institutions around the world, researchers have broken new ground in understanding what causes autism. The results are being published in Cell magazine July 3, 2014: "Disruptive CHD8 Mutations ...
Autistic-like behaviors and decreased cognitive ability may be associated with disruption of the function of the Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) gene. When Tufts researchers deleted the gene from select neurons in the developing ...
Scientists studying the role of a protein complex in the normal development of the mouse brain unexpectedly created a mouse model that replicates clinical symptoms of patients with complex neurological disorders such as hyperactivity, ...
In the nucleus of eukaryotic cells, DNA is packaged with histone proteins into complexes known as chromatin, which are further compacted into chromosomes during cell division. Abnormalities in the structure of chromosomes ...
A new Northwestern Medicine study found evidence suggesting how neural dysfunction in a certain region of the brain can lead to obsessive and repetitive behaviors much like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
While the definitive causes remain unclear, several genetic and environmental factors increase the likelihood of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, a group of conditions covering a "spectrum" of symptoms, skills and levels ...
Many cognitive processes, such as decision-making, take place within seconds or minutes. Neuroscientists have longed to capture neuron activity during such tasks, but that dream has remained elusiveuntil now.
Many genes linked to late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) are expressed in myeloid cells and regulated by a single protein, according to research conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published June ...
Neuroscientists from the University of Chicago have developed a computer model that can simulate the response of nerves in the hand to any pattern of touch stimulation on the skin. The tool reconstructs the response of more ...
Viruses have evolved to be highly effective vehicles for delivering genes into cells. Seeking to take advantage of these traits, scientists can reprogram viruses to function as vectors, capable of carrying their genetic cargo ...
Since scientists began studying the brain, they have asked whether the biology they observed can really be tied to external behaviors. Researchers are building a substantial understanding of the biophysical, molecular, and ...
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Mice provide insight into genetics of autism spectrum disorders - Medical Xpress
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One in five ‘healthy’ adults may carry disease-related genetic mutations – Science Magazine
Posted: at 6:48 am
Two new studies suggest that one in five seemingly healthy people hasDNA mutations that puts him or herat increased risk for genetic disease.
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By Ryan CrossJun. 26, 2017 , 6:15 PM
Some doctors dream of diagnosing diseasesor at least predicting disease riskwith a simple DNA scan. But others have said the practice, which could soon be the foundation of preventative medicine, isnt worth the economic or emotional cost. Now, a new pair of studies puts numbers to the debate, and one is the first ever randomized clinical trial evaluating whole genome sequencing in healthy people. Together, they suggest that sequencing the genomes of otherwise healthy adults can for about one in five people turn up risk markers for rare diseases or genetic mutations associated with cancers.
What that means for those people and any health care system considering genome screening remains uncertain, but some watching for these studies welcomed the results nonetheless. It's terrific that we are studying implementation of this new technology rather than ringing our hands and fretting about it without evidence, says Barbara Biesecker, a social and behavioral researcher at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
The first genome screening study looked at 100 healthy adults who initially reported their family history to their own primary care physician. Then half were randomly assigned to undergo an additional full genomic workup, which cost about $5000 each and examined some 5 million subtle DNA sequence changes, known as single-nucleotide variants, across 4600 genessuch genome screening goes far beyond that currently recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), which suggests informing people of results forjust 59 genes known or strongly expected to cause disease.
Of the 50 participants whose genomes were sequenced, 11 had alterations in at least one letter of DNA suspected to causeusually rarediseases, researchers report today in The Annals of Internal Medicine. But only two exhibited clear symptoms. One was a patient with extreme sensitivity to the sun. Their DNA revealed a skin condition called variegate porphyria. Now that patient knows they will be much less likely to get bad sunburns or rashes if they avoid the sun and certain medications, says Jason Vassy, a primary care clinician-investigator at Veteran Affairs Boston Healthcare System and lead author of the study.
The team also found that every sequenced patient carried at least one recessive mutation linked to a diseasea single copy of a mutant gene that could cause an illness if two copies are present. That knowledge can be used to make reproductive decisionsa partner may get tested to see if they have a matching mutationand prompt family members to test themselves for carrier status. And in what Vassy calls a slightly more controversial result, the team examined participants chances of developing eight polygenic diseases, conditions that are rarely attributed to a single genetic mutation. Here, they compiled the collective effects of multiple genesup to 70 for type II diabetes and 60 for coronary heart diseaseto predict a patients relative risk of developing the disease.
Just 16% of study volunteers who only reported their family history were referred to genetic counselors or got follow-up laboratory tests. In the genome sequencing group, the number was 34%.
Some researchers have expressed concern that such whole genome screening will skyrocket medical costs or cause undue psychological harm. Aside from the initial cost of sequencing (which was covered by the study), patients who underwent the genomic screen paid an average of $350 additional in healthcare costs over the next 6 months, Vassy and colleagues reported. But contrary to fears of emotional trauma, neither the sequencing group nor the control group showed any changes in anxiety or depression 6 months after the study.
Vassy stresses that their study was small and needs follow-up, but it still impressed Christa Martin, a geneticist at Geisinger Health System, in Danville, Pennsylvania, who worked on the ACMGs recommendations for genome sequencing. I almost feel like the authors undersold themselves, she says. Many of their patients are making health behavioral changes, so they are using the information in a positive way.
The study was extremely well designed and very appropriately run, adds Barbara Koenig, a medical anthropologist who directs the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco Bioethics Program. But she still questions the assumption by many physicians, ethicists, and patient advocates that more information is always beneficial. It is just hard to know how all this information is going to be brought together in our pretty dysfunctional healthcare system.
Another paper published last week on the preprint server bioRxiv, which has not yet undergone peer review, yields similar results. Using whole-exome sequencing, which looks only at the protein-coding regions of the genome, Michael Snyder, director of the Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues found that 12 out of 70 healthy adults, or 17%, unknowingly had one or more DNA mutations that increased the risk for genetic diseases for which there are treatment or preventative options.
Both studies suggest that physicians should look at genes beyond the ACMGs 59 top priorities, Snyder says. He argues that whole-genome sequencing should be automatically incorporated into primary care. You may have some super-worriers, but I would argue that the information is still useful for a physician to have. Vassy, however, says that there isnt yet enough evidence to ask insurance companies to reimburse whole genome sequencing of healthy patients.
We like a quick fix and the gene is an important cultural icon right now, so we probably give it more power than it really has, Koenig says. But these are still really early days for these technologies to be useful in the clinic.
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One in five 'healthy' adults may carry disease-related genetic mutations - Science Magazine
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Scientists discover DNA might not be that useful as part of your annual checkup – Washington Post
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Since the human genome was first sequenced in 2003, the immense promise of a technology that can revealthe 6 billion letters that make each of us who we are has loomed large asa way to revolutionize nearly every aspect ofhuman health, from what we know about ourselves the day we are born to how to stave offthe day that we die. Butthe ability to peer into the most fundamental biology of a human being has raised a slew of ethical questions and one that is even more simple: when is that information useful?
If people are healthy, the answer seems to be not very often according to a new, four-year clinical trial that exhaustively studied the use of genome sequencing of healthy adultsby a primary care doctor, anticipating the day that this information becomes part of everyones medical record. Learningtheir genomic results didn't appear to harm anyone, butalso didn't provide any clear short-term health benefits -- and it did drive up health spending compared to patients who simply got a detailed family history.
Contrary to longstanding ethicalconcerns that people will suffer psychological ill effects by learning things they don't want to know in their DNA, people did not experienceanxiety or depression in the six months after receiving the results. They racked upan average of $350 more in health care costs, although the relatively small number of people in the study meant the difference wasn't statistically significant. And while 11 in 50 of the people who were sequenced found out they carried rare genetic mutations that put them at risk of a disease, that information had few health implications for the majority of the patients, who showed no signs of the diseases.
In a few cases, patients might still develop those diseases in future, but that was far from certain. And, reflecting the fluid and evolving understanding of DNA, one mutation that was reported back to a patient was reclassified and was no longer considered a risk factor by the end of the study.
"My bottom line: big questions about the medical utility of whole genome sequencing in healthy adults, real concerns about the health care cost increases from doing whole genome sequencing in healthy adults, continued uncertainty about how the primary care docs are going to be able to handle this, and little comfort about the lack of harms if whole genome sequencing rolls out throughout the population," Hank Greely, director of Stanford Law Schools Center for Law and the Biosciences, said in an e-mail.
Every new medical invention brings with it excitement around novel capabilities, whether it is a 3-D mammogram or a new kind of joint implant. That always comes balanced against the question of how it should best be used. But genome sequencing has traveled a particularly long red carpet of hype. Its medical uses are unusually diverse and it has been plummeting in price; the cost of sequencing and interpreting the genomes in the study was about $5,315, but today an interpreted genome costs about $1,000, according to Jason Vassy, a primary care physician and researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System and Brigham and Women's Hospital who led the study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Add to that the fact this type of informationis being sold directly to people, whether it is Silicon Valleys 23andMe or a growing crop of startup companies that seek to offer consumers medical advice informed by their genome.
Today, in 2017, for a healthy individual, I dont recommend that any primary care physician order whole genome sequencing for that patient. But in a way this study kind of models what might be a more common scenario; the patients would bring this to us. The patient gets their whole genome sequenced; they ask us our opinion, Vassy said.
That doesn't mean people don't like learning about their biology. Renee DuChainey-Farkes, 63, runs a school in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. She eats a healthy diet and exercises, but was curious about her DNA and decided to sign up for the study. Her mother had heart disease and breast cancer, but she had also smoked. DuChainey-Farkes hoped she'd get into the group that got their DNA sequenced, but she was also nervous when she was picked.
"It was like, 'Uh-oh, what am I going to find out,'" DuChainey-Farkes said. "You can always say information is knowledge, but if its not the kind of information I want, keep it away."
She found out she hasan unusual blood type. She learned about her underlying risk for diabetes and obesity. She also found out that she has a rare gene mutation that causes a disease called variegate porphyria, which can cause blistering skin lesions and acute attacks that cause severe abdominal pain.
She has never had an acute attack, but had blistered skin as a child that was attributed to sunburn. She went to a specialist for a follow-up appointment to get baseline measurements done. That reassures her, because if she ever has an attack there will be information in her medical record about her risk for the disease.
Although Duchainey-Farkes enjoyed the testing and felt like she learned a lot about herself, it's less clear how useful the information is. She's a fair-skinned redhead and has always avoided the sun.
"Its kind of like this secret I have. I don't know what to do about it," said DuChainey-Farkes, who has been trying to get her young adult children interested in her findings. "I'm not going to get a really bad sunburn -- I'm definitely more conscious of that."
Misha Angrist, an associate professor at the Duke Social Science Research Institute who has had his genome sequenced twice said that the study shows just how much effort is needed to create the infrastructure to provide this kind of information to healthy patients. He said it also hints at how much more research it will take to really gain any conclusive evidence on whether genome sequencingis ultimately useful for healthy people.
"I imagine some people, especially people who are skeptical of this, will look at this paper and say, 'You know, this is a nothing-burger,'" Angrist said. "I guess I would probably say I think its more like anhors d'oeuvres of a meal with many courses."
Peter Ting, 60, signed up because he was curious whether the thyroid problems and diabetes that afflicted his family members lay in his future, too.
His results were less than a revelation. Ting found out he doesnt have a particular genetic predisposition for diabetes or thyroid disease, a fact that came as a relief. But the relief changes very little about his outlook: he still thinks he should continue his efforts to lose weight. Ting also found an explanation for a problem that wasnt really a problem. For his whole life, he has had trouble adjusting from bright to dark environments; hed be momentarily blinded, for example, when walking into a dark movie theater. When driving, hed close one eye as he approached a tunnel, then open it once he was inside, so that one half of his vision would be pre-adjusted to darkness.
Finding out the gene mutation doesn't change anything, other than learning his problem has a name: fundus albipunctatus.
Its good to know, you know, Ting said. Its not that important -- well, its important that I adapted already.
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DNA used to make nano computers – The Hindu
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Deccan Chronicle | DNA used to make nano computers The Hindu The DNA machines can relay discrete bits of information through space or amplify a signal, said Yonggang Ke, an assistant professor from Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S. In the field of DNA-based computing, the DNA contains the information ... DNA-powered machines to make molecular computers |
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DNA used to make nano computers - The Hindu
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Thanks to the power of human DNA, parallel lives come together after a 50 year wait – myfox8.com
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It was a different time.
Sixteen and pregnant is scary at any age, but in Pittsburgh, in 1966, it left a young lady with few choices.
Cathy Nelson found herself in a Catholic home for unwed mothers when she was that girl.
Cathy didnt know it, but her mother had breast cancer and that may have had a lot to do with Cathys mother insisting that she couldnt keep the baby.
She, like I did, wanted her to have the best life she could and that wouldn't have been with me, admits Cathy.
That baby grew up happy and healthy in an adoptive family.
When I was 17, my dad, every night before I went to bed, he told me he loved me, says Karen Thurbon. And I knew they did but there are just some things that they can't answer.
Thats the power of human DNA.
And it was DNA that eventually led Karen to find her birth mother. Both Karen and Cathy were looking for each other for years.
Everybody has a right to know where they came from, Karen says, emphatically.
But they ran into legal roadblocks: I called an attorney in the town where I grew up I tried to have that done and he told me that was none of my business, says Karen.
They also had other hurdles to overcome, including the fact that Karens birth certificate had the wrong date on it.
Cathy was searching on the 24th, I was searching on the 23rd. If anything came up on any other day, I just scrolled past it, never gave it any thought, says Karen and, just for the record, she was born on Christmas Eve.
But both kept up the search for years.
I knew it was going to be hard and I didn't know what steps I had to take, says Karen, but I just knew I never wanted to give up.
Cathy would talk to friends about Karen, all the time, and they would ask things like, Don't you ever wonder about her?' And I said, 'I wonder about her, every day, I mean, there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about her.' And I said, 'If I could just see her and know she's okay - she doesn't have to know who I am - but if I could just see her and know that she's okay and that she's happy, that's all I want.
They only had tangential luck until Karens husband uploaded her DNA information to a website that allows that MyHeritage.com. It was then, that it all came together.
In this edition of the Buckley Report, see their parallel lives come together after a 50-year wait.
I don' think anyone should go 50 years without their child, it just shouldn't happen, says Cathy.
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Thanks to the power of human DNA, parallel lives come together after a 50 year wait - myfox8.com
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