GENETICS CAN HELP FIGURE DRUG DOSAGEfrom The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Seattle scientists have discovered a genetic method for accuratelydetermining the proper dosage of a common blood-thinning drug, warfarin,which often produces adverse side effects because of its highly variableactivity in patients.

Ethnic heritage, because of shared genetics, turns out to sometimes serveas a proxy for determining dose levels of warfarin.

Asians tend to do better at lower doses while African Americans generallydo better on higher-than-average levels of the drug.http://tinyurl.com/b4vll

ROUND-THE-WORLD TRIP TO CATALOG GENESfrom San Francisco Chronicle

Hamilton Island, Australia -- Barefoot, tan and relaxed, maverick scientistJ. Craig Venter stood at the helm of his racing yacht turned researchvessel. Sunlight reflected off the turquoise waters of the Great BarrierReef as the Sorcerer II, midway through a circumnavigation of the world,sailed through the tropical Whitsunday Islands. Guitar riffs from BobMarley's "Natural Mystic" drifted from the sailboat's speakers.

After taking on -- and tying -- the U.S. government in a race to sequencethe human genome, Venter is now on a mission to catalog all genes on planetEarth. Two years ago, testing a technique called environmental genomeshotgun sequencing, Venter discovered 1,800 new species of microorganismsin the Sargasso Sea.

Then the former California surfer and Vietnam War medic set sail on a 3-year scientific expedition. Plying the waters from Nova Scotia toAustralia, Venter's group has already identified well over 5 million newgenes.http://tinyurl.com/bsnus

RESEARCHERS SAY INTELLIGENCE AND DISEASES MAY BE LINKED IN ASHKENAZIC GENESfrom The New York Times (Registration Required)

A team of scientists at the University of Utah has proposed that theunusual pattern of genetic diseases seen among Jews of central or northernEuropean origin, or Ashkenazim, is the result of natural selection forenhanced intellectual ability.

The selective force was the restriction of Ashkenazim in medieval Europe tooccupations that required more than usual mental agility, the researcherssay in a paper that has been accepted by the Journal of Biosocial Science,published by Cambridge University Press in England.

The hypothesis advanced by the Utah researchers has drawn a mixed reactionamong scientists, some of whom dismissed it as extremely implausible, whileothers said they had made an interesting case, although one liable to raisemany hackles.http://tinyurl.com/85d9l

CAVE BEAR GENE MAP TAKING SHAPE AT LABfrom San Francisco Chronicle

The beginnings of a gene map for an extinct species -- a cave bear thatstomped around Austria about 40,000 years ago -- was created earlier thisyear in a federally funded lab in Walnut Creek, scientists announcedThursday.

The finding was published online in Sciencexpress by scientists at theJoint Genome Institute, a Walnut Creek lab jointly run by the U.S. EnergyDepartment and the University of California. Sciencexpress is an onlinesupplement to the journal Science.

"No one has ever made a genomic library for an ancient organism atall. .. . That is the advance," the article's lead author, James P. Noonan,a geneticist and postdoctoral fellow at the genomics division of LawrenceBerkeley National Laboratory, said in an interview.http://tinyurl.com/797dk

STUDY: GENES PLAY ROLE IN WOMEN'S ORGASMSfrom Associated Press

LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) -- A woman's ability to have an orgasm is atleast partly determined by her genes and can't be blamed entirely oncultural influences, new research suggests. Experts say that's likely to beinterpreted as both good and bad news.

"It'll be upsetting because some women will think, 'Oh my God, maybe I justcan't.' On the other hand it takes away a kind of guilt or pressure," saidDr. Virginia Sadock, director of the human sexuality program at New YorkUniversity Medical Center.

Either way, specialists say the findings don't mean women who inherit anunfortunate gene package are doomed. They just mean that more work, or

patience, is required.http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/06/07/international/i160251D86.DTL&sn=008&sc=610

PAPERS FIND GENETIC LINK TO GROWTH OF TUMORSfrom The New York Times (Registration Required)

A recently discovered genetic mechanism appears to play an important rolein the development of cancer, scientists are reporting today, in findingsthat may eventually lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the disease.

The discoveries "change the landscape in cancer genetics," Dr. Paul S.Meltzer of the National Human Genome Research Institute wrote in acommentary in the journal Nature, which is publishing three papers on thefindings today.

Other scientists cautioned that the new findings merely added detail to thealready complex picture of how tumors arise and grow.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/09/science/09cancer.html

A PRESCRIPTION JUST FOR YOUfrom Newsday

...Personalized medicine is the wave of the future, experts say. It is alsoreferred to as pharmacogenomics or pharmacogenetics.

"It's the way medicine is going," says Dr. Roy Herbst, chief of thoraciconcology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "If we're reallygoing to be effective in cancer the way everyone wants, my feeling is theonly way to do it is to use these targeted approaches."

Increasingly, pharmaceutical houses are focusing on drugs tailored to workin smaller groups of patients rather than widely prescribed blockbusters.One-size-fits-all drugs may lose their lustre, especially for cancerpatients with tumors that resist certain medications. And it is hoped newtests will help spare patients from drugs that may cause side effects whiledoing little to defeat their diseases.http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-bzmed0609,0,4182617.story

SEATTLE RESEARCHERS LINK 3 NEW GENES TO OBESITYfrom Seattle Times

Seattle scientists have identified three new genes linked to obesity, usinga novel research technique that could be widely applied to other genetic

analysis.

Two of the genes, discovered in mice, someday could be targets for humanobesity-prevention drugs, said Eric Schadt of Rosetta Inpharmatics, aSeattle biotechnology company where the research was centered.

"It will stimulate a lot of activity in exploring the genes and how theywork," said Schadt, senior scientific director for Rosetta, owned by Merck.http://tinyurl.com/dfl3w

PLAIN, SIMPLE, PRIMITIVE? NOT THE JELLYFISHfrom The New York Times (Registration Required)

Jellyfish have traditionally been considered simple and primitive. When yougaze at one in an aquarium tank, it is not hard to see why.

Like its relatives the sea anemone and coral, the jellyfish looks like a no-frills animal. It has no head, no back or front, no left or right sides, nolegs or fins. It has no heart. Its gut is a blind pouch rather than a tube,so its mouth must serve as its anus. Instead of a brain, it has a diffusenet of nerves.

But new research has made scientists realize that they have underestimatedthe jellyfish and its relatives - known collectively as cnidarians(pronounced nih-DEHR-ee-uns). Beneath their seemingly simple exterior liesa remarkably sophisticated collection of genes, including many that giverise to humans' complex anatomy.http://tinyurl.com/8v3xa

FLIPPING THE GENETIC SWITCHfrom The Boston Globe (Registration Required)

When the human genome was sequenced two years ago, researchers held theblueprint of a human being in their hands -- a nonsensical string of 3billion DNA letters. But the project's promise of curing disease andexplaining the workings of the human body would depend in part on a curiousphenomenon first observed in microscopic worms and in petunias -- cells'natural ability to "turn off" genes.

Over the past few years, scientists have turned the once-puzzling researchresult into a powerful tool now poised to bridge the gap between the genomeproject and the medicine cabinet.

The tool, called RNA interference, or RNAi, is ubiquitous in biologylaboratories, and in the span of just a few years has leapt from the journalScience's list of top-10 basic science breakthroughs in 2002 and 2003

literally into the eyes of its first patients.http://tinyurl.com/9rfna

GENETIC PROFILE MAY HELP FERTILITYfrom Associated Press

COPENHAGEN -- New research raises the possibility that a genetic test may beable to tell young women whether they can afford to delay motherhood whilethey get their careers on track.

In a study presented Tuesday at a European fertility conference, scientistsreported that some women who find it easy to conceive after age 45 have aspecial genetic profile.

Scientists always suspected genes must help those rare women who defy theodds and get pregnant over and over again late in life, but this is thefirst time it has been proven, said Dr. Hans Evers, former chairman of theEuropean Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.http://tinyurl.com/a924r

TWIN DATA HIGHLIGHT GENETIC CHANGESfrom The Washington Post (Registration Required)

A mysterious biological mechanism that subtly changes the way people'sgenes behave may account for many of the surprising differences betweenidentical twins, researchers announced yesterday.

Geneticists said the new work, by an international team of scientists whostudied the DNA of more than 40 pairs of twins, strengthens the case that afledgling research field called epigenetics holds the long-sought answer toone of biology's toughest questions: How do environmental influences, suchas exposure to pollutants, consumption of certain foods or perhaps evenpowerful emotional experiences, produce lasting and potentially life-altering changes in a person's DNA?

Beyond its potential importance for understanding differences in identicaltwins, epigenetics could explain many of the twists of fate that affectordinary people -- why one person may be struck by cancer, for example,while another is spared, even though neither's DNA harbors a cancer-causingmutation.http://tinyurl.com/93pjk

VENTER REVIVES SYNTHETIC BUG TALKfrom BBC News Online

Craig Venter - one of the scientists behind the sequencing of the humangenetic code - aims to construct a living organism from a kit of genes.

It would be a biological milestone were he to succeed and would open adebate about the nature of "life".

Dr Venter's company will work out the minimum number of genes a bacteriumneeds, synthesise the genetic material and then put it in an empty cell.http://tinyurl.com/dovnh

TEST REVEALS GENDER EARLY IN PREGNANCYfrom The Boston Globe (Registration Required)

First came the home pregnancy test. Now here comes the home gender test.

A new blood test being marketed to American women offers them the chance tofind out whether they are having a boy or a girl almost as soon as theyrealize they are pregnant, as early as five weeks along.

Just two or three days after mailing the test overnight to a Lowell lab forprocessing, a pregnant woman can know what color to paint the nursery -- oreven decide whether to get an abortion if she wants a child of the oppositesex, a prospect that worries ethicists.http://tinyurl.com/9tyb2

CATS' SWEET TOOTH LONG GONEfrom The Washington Post (Registration Required)

Curiosity about the cat has finally paid off with a scientific explanationfor felines' enigmatic indifference to sweets.

Researchers, pet owners and cat chow manufacturers have long recognizedthat cats, in stark contrast to their canine counterparts, show noparticular attraction to sugar. Having sampled two dishes of water, onespiked with sugar and the other not, a cat is as likely to lap from one asthe other.

But why? Until now, scientists have not known whether cats simply lack thelingual apparatus to detect sugar; or have functional sugar detectors ontheir tongues but faulty wiring from their taste buds to the brain; or --as some might presume -- are simply too snooty to admit to such a commoncraving.

Now researchers studying the DNA of house cats, tigers and cheetahs havesettled the question: Cats both large and small harbor a genetic mutation

that renders the sugar detectors on their taste buds inoperative.http://tinyurl.com/e34lo

GENE MAKES TIDY EARFULfrom Newsday

As you bite into sweet Long Island corn think about the Illinois farmerwhose 1909 discovery of a bizarre stalk of corn helped geneticists unravelthe beauty of the modern vegetable's tidy, straight rows.

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have just identified the generesponsible for the popular crop's shape by studying thismutant "monstrosity of a corn" found almost a hundred years ago.

Scientists have known since the 1930s that a single gene mutation wasresponsible for the bushy stalk that grew without any straight rows ofkernels. It was called ramosa-1, but there was no way to identify theactual gene. Until now.http://tinyurl.com/dlz77

GIVING GENETIC DISEASE THE FINGERfrom WiredNews

Scientists are closing in on techniques that could let them safely repairalmost any defective gene in a patient, opening the door for the first timeto treatments for a range of genetic disorders that are now consideredincurable.

The breakthrough, announced in the journal Nature in June, relies on so-called zinc fingers, named after wispy amino acid protuberances thatemanate from a single zinc ion. When inserted into human cells, the fingersautomatically bind to miscoded strands of DNA, spurring the body's innaterepair mechanism to recode the problem area with the correct gene sequence.

A method for fixing miscoded DNA by injecting foreign genes into cells wonheadlines three years ago when doctors in France and Britain announced ahandful of successful cures related to X-linked severe combinedimmunodeficiency disease, or SCID, also known as "bubble boy" disease. Butthat method was ultimately proven unsafe.http://www.wirednews.com/news/medtech/0,1286,68019,00.html

FLU MUTATES QUICKER THAN THOUGHTfrom BBC News Online

Flu viruses can swap many genes rapidly to make new resistant strains, US

researchers have found.

Scientists previously believed that gene swapping progressed gradually fromseason to season.

The National Institutes of Health team found instead, influenza A exchangedseveral genes at once, causing sudden and major changes to the virus.http://tinyurl.com/98we3

CANCER CELLS' NEED TO ROAMfrom Newsday

Some cancers possess a potentially deadly wanderlust that causes them tospread from one organ to another, and now scientists in Manhattan haveunmasked the genes that trigger breast cancers to invade the lungs,according to an analysis released today.

The finding is considered a landmark because it is proof that a specificgenetic signature exists for each type of cancer and the organ to which itspreads.

Writing in today's issue of the journal Nature, scientists at MemorialSloan-Kettering Cancer Center say their finding helps unlock the long-keptsecrets of metastasis, the reason cancers become dangerous.http://tinyurl.com/atl6w

DNA MACHINE MAY ADVANCE GENETIC SEQUENCING FOR PATIENTSfrom The New York Times (Registration Required)

A new kind of machine for decoding DNA may help bring costs so low that itwould be feasible to decode an individual's DNA for medical reasons. Themachine, developed by 454 Life Sciences of Branford, Conn., was used toresequence the genome of a small bacterium in four hours, its scientistsreport in an article published online today by the journal Nature.

In 1995, when the same bacterium was first sequenced, by Claire M. Fraser,it required 24,000 separate operations spread over four to six months, shesaid in an e-mail message.

The machine uses the chemistry of fireflies to generate a flash of lighteach time a unit of DNA is correctly analyzed. The flashes from more than amillion DNA-containing wells, arrayed on a credit-card-sized plate, aremonitored by a light-detecting chip, of the kind used in telescopes todetect the faintest light from distant stars. Then, they are sent to acomputer that reconstructs the sequence of the genome.http://tinyurl.com/bmooh

FIRST CLONED DOG IS A ONE-IN-A-THOUSAND SUCCESSfrom The Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

Researchers in South Korea have produced the first cloned dog - a friskyAfghan hound puppy - in a scientifically daunting feat eagerly anticipatedby scientists and pet owners alike.

Snuppy - short for Seoul National University Puppy - was grown from anembryo containing DNA from the ear of a male hound selected for his gentleand docile nature, said Woo Suk Hwang, one of the lead researchers.

The black, white and tan puppy, now 3 months old, was the sole survivoramong more than 1,000 cloned embryos that were transferred into surrogatemothers.http://tinyurl.com/8ce5r

MANY DADS UNKNOWINGLY RAISING OTHERS' KIDSfrom HealthDay

THURSDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDayNews) -- Calling it a Pandora's Box with broadhealth implications, British researchers say genetic testing is informingabout 4 percent of fathers that a child they are raising is not their own.

The implications are huge, the study authors noted, because suchrevelations often lead to divorce and increased mental health problems forboth the man and woman involved, including the threat of violence by theman.

In addition, children whose lives are changed by this genetic informationcan struggle with low self-esteem, anxiety, and increased antisocialbehavior, such as aggression.http://tinyurl.com/dmrjy

WHEW! YOUR DNA ISN'T YOUR DESTINYfrom Wired News

The more we learn about the human genome, the less DNA looks like destiny.

As scientists discover more about the "epigenome," a layer of biochemicalreactions that turns genes on and off, they're finding that it plays a bigpart in health and heredity.

By mapping the epigenome and linking it with genomic and health information,scientists believe they can develop better ways to predict, diagnose andtreat disease.http://tinyurl.com/aqp5g

BUILDING A VIRTUAL MICROBE, GENE BY GENE BY GENEfrom The New York Times (Registration Required)

Michael Ellison has a dream: to reconstruct a living thing inside acomputer, down to every last molecule. It is, he said, "the ultimate goal inbiology to be able to do this."

It's a dream that Dr. Ellison, a biologist at the University of Alberta,shares with other scientists, who have imagined such an achievement for decades.

Understanding how all of the parts of an organism work together would liftbiology to a new level, they argue. Biologists would be able to understandlife as deeply as engineers understand the bridges and airplanes that theybuild.http://tinyurl.com/d4bnv

SHAGGY-HAIRED MICE AID CELL-AGING RESEARCHfrom San Francisco Chronicle

Stanford University biologists have created a strain of long-hairedlaboratory mice that suggest a surprising new role for an enzyme alreadylinked to aging and cancer.

Steven Artandi, a Stanford cancer biologist, graduate student Kavita Sarinand colleagues reported today that a key component of the enzyme, known astelomerase, can switch on stem cells resting in mouse hair follicles.

The otherwise ordinary-looking mice promptly became as shaggy as '70s rockstars -- a wholly unexpected result that hints at new ways of understandingstem cell biology and age-related disorders.http://tinyurl.com/cbwh2

GENETIC MATERIAL MAY AID SARS TREATMENTfrom Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Small fragments of genetic material that can silence specificgenes are showing promise in battling the deadly severe acute respiratorysyndrome.

SARS, first recognized in 2002, killed 774 people worldwide before it wasbrought under control by quarantine, isolating patients and restricting travel.

Since then, researchers have struggled to find a treatment or vaccine beforea new outbreak occurs.

Researchers reported Sunday that snippets called interfering RNA can reducean existing infection in monkeys and help protect them from new ones.http://tinyurl.com/cqvx5

ANCESTRY IN A DROP OF BLOODfrom The Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

DNA is a technology that is roiling Indian tribes nationwide.

From California to Connecticut, tribes and would-be members are grapplingwith the ramifications of a science that is able to demystify someone'sgenes for as little as a few hundred dollars.

Modern genetic tests can detect traces of ancestors by looking for mutationsthat pass from generation to generation in specific racial groups.

More than half a dozen companies have sprung up in the last five years. Manyreport their most eager customers are people seeking to prove Indian heritage.http://tinyurl.com/dem72

SCIENTISTS COMPLETE GENETIC MAP OF THE CHIMPANZEEfrom The Washington Post (Registration Required)

Scientists said yesterday that they have determined the precise order of the3 billion bits of genetic code that carry the instructions for making achimpanzee, humankind's closest cousin.

The fresh unraveling of chimpanzee DNA allows an unprecedented gene-to-genecomparison with the human genome, mapped in 2001, and makes plain theevolutionary processes through which chimps and humans arose from a commonancestor about 6 million years ago.

By placing the two codes alongside each other, scientists identified all 40million molecular changes that today separate the two species and pinpointedthe mere 250,000 that seem most responsible for the difference betweenchimpness and humanness.http://tinyurl.com/dq6uf

GENE DIRECTS EATING HABITS

from Newsday

A single gene controls "Food Central" in the brain, directing the day-to-dayactivity of a necessary human pastime: Eating.

Now, Yale scientists have proven that the gene, AgRP, makes a protein thatfeeds brain cells that give orders about when to eat and how much. AgRP hadbeen identified in earlier research as part of the brain pathway involved inappetite, but a range of genetic studies emerged empty-handed when the genewas de-activated early in development. Contrary to what scientists thoughtwould happen, test animals kept eating.

But Tamas Horvath, chairman and associate professor at Yale School ofMedicine, didn't give up on the gene. He designed a way to let the gene doits job and then wipe out the entire population of this kind of cell in onefell swoop in adulthood. Without the AgRP-producing brain cells, adultanimals stopped eating. Completely.http://tinyurl.com/blwx6

OHSU RESEARCHERS' DISCOVERY MAY HELP REMEDY A RARE DISEASEfrom The Oregonian

Scientists studying the illness Fanconi anemia -- work closely tied toOregon -- have new proof linking the rare disease to a DNA-repair systemthat probably helps most people stay healthy.

The work brings doctors a step closer to understanding the normal roleFanconi anemia genes play in helping cells divide. That knowledge shouldimprove the odds of finding a treatment for Fanconi anemia, which kills mostpatients by age 20.

"The more you understand about how the molecular machine works, the betterchance you have of designing a therapy," said Oregon Health & ScienceUniversity researcher Maureen Hoatlin, who with OHSU's Stacie Stone helpedfind one of two new genes that can cause Fanconi anemia. Their work ispublished in September's issue of Nature Genetics.http://tinyurl.com/bxedw

CHROMOSOME TRANSPLANT IN MICE COULD PROVIDE CLUE TO DOWN'S SYNDROME ILLNESSESfrom The Guardian (UK)

Scientists have successfully transplanted human chromosomes into mice, afirst that promises to transform medical research into the genetic causes ofdisease. The mice were genetically engineered to carry a copy of humanchromosome 21, a string of about 250 genes. About one in a thousand people

are born with an extra copy of the chromosome, a genetic hiccup that causesDown's syndrome.

Genetic studies of the mice will help scientists to nail down which genesgive rise to medical conditions which are prevalent among people with Down'ssyndrome, such as impaired brain development, heart defects, behaviouralabnormalities, Alzheimer's disease and leukaemia.

Medical researchers yesterday hailed the work as a "tour de force", butcritics accused the team of pushing the boundaries of genetic manipulationtoo far and blurring the distinction of what was biologically human.http://tinyurl.com/7gyq4

TIME TO STOP TRASHING JUNK DNAfrom The Guardian (UK)

The vast regions of our genetic code that seem to have no discerniblefunction could be more important than previously thought. Scientists havefound that this genetic material, nicknamed "junk" DNA, maintains theintegrity of the more important, coding parts of our genome and is criticalfor evolutionary survival.

Peter Andolfatto, a University of California San Diego biologist, studiedthe genes of fruit flies and found that the junk DNA was strongly affectedby natural selection, which leads to the survival of organisms and genesbest adapted to the environment. The sections of DNA which encode forproteins, known as genes, only account for a minority of its geneticmaterial. In a fruit fly, 80% of the DNA seems to have no function; inhumans that figure is closer to 95%. This section of DNA is used in creatinggenetic fingerprints, as random mutations do not cause problems which couldpredispose people to illness.http://tinyurl.com/b69w7

SHORTCUT IN SEARCH FOR GENESfrom the Los Angeles Times (via sfgate.com)

The search for the causes of complex genetic diseases received a major boosttoday with the publication of the first map of human genetic variations, thesubtle genetic changes that make each of us different from our neighbors.

Humans worldwide share 99.9 percent of their genetic blueprint. It is that0.1 percent difference, however, that makes each person unique, and that isthe root of the genetic mischief that causes diseases like diabetes, asthma,hypertension, cancer and a host of others.

In the past, researchers had to sift through the entire 3 billion individualchemical letters, called "nucleotides," that comprise the human blueprint intheir search for disease-causing genes. But now it has become clear thateach of those individual changes, called "single nucleotide polymorphisms"or SNPs, is linked to a large block of DNA, called a "haplotype," that isgenerally inherited intact.http://tinyurl.com/cp2nj

DNA VACCINES MAY OFFER DEFENSE AGAINST FLU PANDEMICfrom Associated Press

San Francisco (AP) -- The flu vaccine-making system that serves as the bestavailable protection against a pandemic relies on millions of chicken eggs,takes nine months to produce each year's flu shots and has changed littlesince the 18th century.

This creaky system poses a big problem if a new, deadly strain emerges oncethe annual and inflexible production process begins.

Several biotechnology companies are at work on a new and quicker way ofmaking a flu vaccine they hope can replace one that requires people to beinoculated with the entire influenza virus. Their technique: extract just afew genes from the virus and inject it into people.http://tinyurl.com/cssb2

Researchers May Have Discovered Dyslexia GeneBy Amanda GardnerHealthDay Reporter Fri Oct 28, 7:02 PM ET

FRIDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified a variation in a gene that appears to account for about 17 percent of cases of the reading disability dyslexia.ADVERTISEMENT

Experts hailed the finding as a potential milestone in the understanding of the widespread disorder.

"This is highly significant," said Jeffrey W. Gilger, associate dean for discovery and faculty development at Purdue University. "It is the first really good study that combines molecular genetics with brain imaging research, as well as actually testing whether these genes they think they found are really active in the brain."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20051028/hl_hsn/researchersmayhavediscovereddyslexiagene

A Major Research Movefrom Newsday

Walking, grabbing a pen, bending over to tie a shoe. For most people, theseeveryday functions seem so easy. But until now, scientists really couldn'texplain how motor neurons are born to find their precise job in the body.There are 100 different types of motor neurons, each destined to hook up toa specific muscle in the body.

Now, in a landmark finding that could have huge implications for a varietyof diseases - from paralysis to Lou Gehrig's disease - scientists atColumbia University Medical Center have discovered a set of genes thatassign a role to specific types of motor neurons. This was no smalldiscovery: Just taking a step calls on 50 different muscle groups.

So how does the human body generate such an extreme diversity of motorneurons, and how do they find the right home?http://tinyurl.com/d46sm

Appetite-Suppressing Hormone Discoveredfrom Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Scientists have discovered a biological brake for a hungerhormone: a competing hormone that seems to counter the urge to eat.

The substance, named obestatin, has been tested just in laboratory rats sofar. But if it pans out, the discovery of the dueling hormones could leadnot only to a new appetite suppressant, but also help unravel the complexways that the body regulates weight.

It turns out that the same gene sparks production of the two opposinghormones, Stanford University researchers say in Friday's edition of thejournal Science.http://tinyurl.com/78ghp

Genetic Find Stirs Debate on Race-Based Medicinefrom the New York Times (Registration Required)

In a finding that is likely to sharpen discussion about the merits ofrace-based medicine, an Icelandic company says it has detected a version ofa gene that raises the risk of heart attack in African-Americans by more

than 250 percent.

The company, DeCode Genetics, first found the variant gene among Icelandersand then looked for it in three American populations, in Philadelphia,Cleveland and Atlanta.

Among Americans of European ancestry, the variant is quite common, but itcauses only a small increase in risk, about 16 percent.http://tinyurl.com/bbes9

DNA SAMPLE HELPS TEEN FIND SPERM-DONOR FATHERfrom The Chicago Tribune (Registration Required)

WASHINGTON -- Like many children whose mothers used an anonymous spermdonor, the 15-year-old boy longed for any shred of information about hisbiological father. But, uniquely, this resourceful teenager decided to tryexploiting the latest in genetic technology and the sleuthing powers of theInternet in his quest.

By submitting a DNA sample to a commercial genetic database service thathelps people draw their family tree, the youth found a crucial clue thatquickly enabled him to track down his long-sought parent.

"I was stunned," said Wendy Kramer, whose online registry for childrentrying to find anonymous donors of sperm or egg helped lead the teenager tohis father. "This had never been done before. No one knew you could get aDNA test and find your donor."http://tinyurl.com/a8ob4

Timid Mice Made Daring by Removing One Genefrom the New York Times (Registration Required)

Scientists working with mice have found that by removing a single gene theycan turn normally cautious animals into daring ones, mice that are morewilling to explore unknown territory and less intimidated by sights andsounds that they have learned can be dangerous.

The surprising discovery, being reported today in the journal Cell, opens anew window on how fear works in the brain, experts said.

Gene therapy to create daredevil warriors is likely to remain the provinceof screenwriters, but the new findings may help researchers design noveldrugs to treat a wide array of conditions, from disabling anxiety in socialsettings to the sudden flights of poisoned memory that can persist in thewake of a disaster, an attack or the horror of combat.

http://tinyurl.com/9stnx

Americas Settled by Two Groups of Early Humans, Study Saysfrom National Geographic News

At least two distinct groups of early humans colonized the Americas, a newstudy says, reviving the debate about who the first Americans were and whenthey arrived.

Anthropologists Walter Neves and Mark Hubbe studied 81 skulls of earlyhumans from South America and found them to be different from both modernand ancient Native Americans.

The 7,500- to 11,000-year-old remains suggest that the oldest settlers ofthe Americas came from different genetic stock than more recent NativeAmericans.http://tinyurl.com/9f4mr

New Genome Project to Focus on Genetic Links in Cancersfrom the New York Times (Registration Required)

The government is beginning a project designed to unlock the geneticabnormalities that contribute to cancer, an effort that would exceed theHuman Genome Project in complexity and could eventually lead to newdiagnostic tests and treatments for the disease.

Government officials said Tuesday that they would spend $100 million overthree years on a pilot phase of the project, which will be called The CancerGenome Atlas.

"This is a revolutionary project," Anna D. Barker, deputy director of theNational Cancer Institute, said at a news briefing in Washington. "It'sgoing to empower all cancer researchers with an entire new set of data towork with."http://tinyurl.com/73rgo

Scientists Find a DNA Change That Accounts for White Skinfrom the Washington Post (Registration Required)

Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutationthat largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens ofthousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's mostenduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in asingle individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people

were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humansmoved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to thelightest of the world's races.

Leaders of the study, at Penn State University, warned against interpretingthe finding as a discovery of "the race gene." Race is a vaguely definedbiological, social and political concept, they noted, and skin color is onlypart of what race is -- and is not.http://tinyurl.com/c8vfb

When Humans and Chimps Splitfrom LiveScience

A new study of genes in humans and chimpanzees pins down with greateraccuracy when the two species split from one.

The evolutionary divergence occurred between 5 million and 7 million yearsago, an estimate that improves on the previous range of 3 million to 13million years in the past.

Modern chimps are the closest animal relative to humans. Knowing when thetwo split has implication both for understanding how quickly evolution worksand for imagining the likelihood of intelligent beings elsewhere in theuniverse, researchers said today.http://tinyurl.com/9jo45

Siberian Woolly Mammoth Fuels Genome Debatefrom Reuters

WASHINGTON - The remains of a 28,000-year-old woolly mammoth fueled debateover the 21st-century science of genomics on Monday, as two teams offeredevidence about the big mammal‘s genetic makeup.

Competing papers in the journals Science and Nature both focused on what isleft of a woolly mammoth found in Siberia.

This mammoth was a good candidate for genetic analysis because it had beenpreserved in the natural deep-freeze of permafrost soil, which meant less ofit was decomposed or contaminated by bacteria and other organisms.http://tinyurl.com/aqs2r

DNA Offers New Insight Concerning Cat Evolutionfrom the New York Times (Registration Required)

Researchers have gained a major insight into the evolution of cats byshowing how they migrated to new continents and developed new species as sealevels rose and fell.

About nine million years ago - two million years after the cat family firstappeared in Asia - these successful predators invaded North America bycrossing the Beringian land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska, a team ofgeneticists writes in the journal Science today.

Later, several American cat lineages returned to Asia. With each migration,evolutionary forces morphed the pantherlike patriarch of all cats into arainbow of species, from ocelots and lynxes to leopards, lions and thelineage that led to the most successful cat of all, even though it hasmostly forsaken its predatory heritage: the cat that has induced people topay for its board and lodging in return for frugal displays of affection.http://tinyurl.com/7r9x8

Genetic Link to Parkinson's Is Discoveredfrom The Washington Post (Registration Required)

Researchers said yesterday that they have identified a single geneticmutation that accounts for more than 20 percent of all cases of Parkinson'sdisease in Arabs, North Africans and Jews, a big surprise for a majordisease in which genetics was thought to play a relatively minor role.

Although the mutation is rare in people with ethnic roots outside the MiddleEast, its discovery raises the prospect that undiscovered mutations may bemajor causes of Parkinson's in other groups.

"Genetics are going to be a lot more important in Parkinson's than peoplehave appreciated," said study leader Susan Bressman, a neurologist at AlbertEinstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Beth Israel MedicalCenter in New York.http://tinyurl.com/cmcwd

Scientists Find Gene That Controls Type of Earwax in Peoplefrom the New York Times (Registration Required)

Earwax may not play a prominent part in human history but at least a smallrole for it has now been found by a team of Japanese researchers.

Earwax comes in two types, wet and dry. The wet form predominates in Africaand Europe, where 97 percent or more of people have it, and the dry formamong East Asians. The populations of South and Central Asia are roughlyhalf and half. By comparing the DNA of Japanese with each type, the

researchers were able to identify the gene that controls which type a personhas, they report in today's issue of Nature Genetics.

They then found that the switch of a single DNA unit in the gene determineswhether a person has wet or dry earwax. The gene's role seems to be toexport substances out of the cells that secrete earwax. The single DNAchange deactivates the gene and, without its contribution, a person has dryearwax.http://tinyurl.com/avfkf

Infertility Link in Iceman's DNAfrom BBC News Online

Oetzi, the prehistoric man frozen in a glacier for 5,300 years, could havebeen infertile, a new study suggests.

Genetic research, published in the American Journal of PhysicalAnthropology, also confirms that his roots probably lie in Central Europe.

Oetzi's body was found in the melting ice of the Schnalstal glacier in theItalian Alps in 1991.http://tinyurl.com/bxome

Gene May Trigger Rare Esophageal Disorderfrom Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Genes prove it: A rare but devastating esophageal illnessthat's on the rise isn't hard-to-treat acid reflux as once suspected but acompletely different disease - one linked to allergies.

Known by the tongue-twisting name eosinophilic esophagitis, the worst casesof this mysterious disease can force children onto liquid diets and feedingtubes, and leave adults with an esophagus so narrowed that food gets trappedin it.

With no proven treatments, doctors try creative experiments, including a newattempt to coat patients' inflamed throats with a paste made from a popularasthma medicine and the sugar substitute Splenda.http://tinyurl.com/drfs4

Scientists Unlock Key Gene Mysteryfrom the Chicago Tribune (Registration Required)

Scientists have known for three decades that humans and chimpanzees share 99percent of the same genes, but they have been at a loss to explain whatcauses the two to be so obviously different physically, behaviorally and

mentally.

Now a team of geneticists from Yale University and the University of Chicagohave evidence indicating that humans experienced a high rate of mutations inkey master genes that turn arrays of other genes on and off.

In many cases the changes in these master or regulatory genes wound upendowing the other genes with new properties--something like a conductormaking a four-piece band play like a symphony orchestra. This, they say, maybe the process that permits rapid evolutionary changes in body structure andfunction.http://tinyurl.com/fqzyc

Genome's Knowledge Avalanchefrom BBC News Online

Dr Francis Collins, the scientist leading the Human Genome Project, says heexpects important new gene sequences governing aspects of personality, suchas intelligence and behaviour, to be known very shortly.

While the project to crack our DNA code has been targeted at understandingand eradicating disease, Dr Collins believes the project will providesignificant insights into a broad range of heritable aspects.

"We haven't discovered most of those yet, but frankly, we should be preparedfor an avalanche of that kind of information coming in the next two or threeyears," he told the BBC World Service's The Interview programme.http://tinyurl.com/zf2mf

Silent Struggle: A New Theory of Pregnancyfrom the New York Times (Registration Required)

Pregnancy can be the most wonderful experience life has to offer. But it canalso be dangerous. Around the world, an estimated 529,000 women a year dieduring pregnancy or childbirth. Ten million suffer injuries, infection ordisability.

To David Haig, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard, these grim statisticsraise a profound puzzle about pregnancy.

"Pregnancy is absolutely central to reproduction, and yet pregnancy doesn'tseem to work very well," he said. "If you think about the heart or thekidney, they're wonderful bits of engineering that work day in and day outfor years and years. But pregnancy is associated with all sorts of medical

problems. What's the difference?"http://tinyurl.com/eura7

Asthma and Eczema Linked to Mutant Genefrom the Guardian (UK)

Scientists are a step closer to understanding the causes of eczema andasthma after discovering a genetic mutation in the skin of people who havethe conditions.

Scottish researchers have found that around two-thirds of eczema cases and aquarter of asthma cases involve mutations to a gene that helps form theskin's outer protective layer.

"[This] allows us for the first time to understand what goes wrong in theskin of these patients and paves the way for the development of newtreatments," said Irwin McLean at the University of Dundee, who led thestudy. The group's research has brought hopes of cures for both conditionscloser.http://tinyurl.com/po3r9

Genetic Variation is Linked to Angerfrom the Boston Globe (Registration Required)

NEW YORK -- Scientists say they have discovered a biological reason why somepeople are more likely than others to develop violent impulses.

Researchers found that people born with a variation of a gene had smallerbrain regions that manage fear and anger. This suggested that they had lessability to control the feelings, scientists said yesterday in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The finding is part of research on the genetics of behavior. The study helpsto clarify how a biological predisposition may make some people, especiallymales, more likely to commit acts of impulsive violence, researchers said.http://tinyurl.com/fkwdk

Transplant Drug May Treat Deadly Kidney Diseasefrom the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

An anti-rejection drug widely used in organ transplants could provide thefirst useful treatment for polycystic kidney disease, a deadly disordercaused by a single defective gene.

Studies in mice show that the drug, rapamycin, can reverse the normallyunstoppable growth of kidneys associated with the disease. Studies of a

small number of humans suggest that it could work in them as well, the teamreported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Because the drug is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration andknown to be safe, clinical trials in patients with the disease could beginrapidly, said professor Thomas Weimbs of UC Santa Barbara, who led thestudy.http://tinyurl.com/zvd6w

Researchers Aim to Make Disease-Resistant Cattlefrom Associated Press

COLLEGE STATION - Researchers from Texas A&M University are working todevelop illness-repellent sheep, a step that could lead to the engineeringof cattle resistant to mad cow disease.

The veterinarians are focusing on turning off the genes that allow illnessesto manifest themselves in animals.

Such technology could lead to higher quality fiber, meat and milk products,A&M veterinarians Mark Westhusin and Charles Long wrote in a paper publishedin the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.http://tinyurl.com/ktorw

Tackle Your Cholesterol Earlyfrom Nature News

Think you're too young to worry about cholesterol? Think again. Many peoplecould drastically reduce their future risk of heart disease by loweringtheir cholesterol levels from as early as their 20s. That's the bottom lineof a study showing that people born with low cholesterol are protected fromheart problems.

High levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), a molecule that transportscholesterol in the blood, are strongly associated with heart disease.Doctors already know that reducing LDL with exercise or drugs can reduce aperson's risk of heart attack. But it has been harder to find out whetherheart health could be improved further by lowering LDL from a young age.

Helen Hobbs at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas,and her colleagues saw an opportunity to find out. Last year, theydiscovered that a fraction of the population are genetically programmed tohave low LDL levels, because they carry particular versions of a gene calledPCSK9 that help the liver to eliminate LDL cholesterol.http://tinyurl.com/fjmzq

Mice Offer Insight Into New Pain Drugsfrom the Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis researchers studying mice said they have found keyfactors in the body that could lead to making better pain-reducing drugs.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, led byassociate professor Dr. Robert Gereau, studied mice that were missing aspecific potassium gene that regulates pain messages sent from the spinalcord to the brain.

The research advances a previous Harvard University study and will bepublished Thursday in the journal Neuron.http://tinyurl.com/qqvn2

Seeking Ancestry in DNA Ties Uncovered by Testsfrom the New York Times (Registration Required)

Genetic tests, once obscure tools for scientists, have begun to influenceeveryday lives in many ways. The tests are reshaping people's sense ofthemselves -- where they came from, why they behave as they do, what diseasemight be coming their way.

It may be only natural then that ethnic ancestry tests, one of the firstcommercial products to emerge from the genetic revolution, are spurring athorough exploration of the question, What is in it for me?

Many scientists criticize the ethnic ancestry tests as promising more thanthey can deliver. The legacy of an ancestor several generations back may betoo diluted to show up. And the tests have a margin of error, so resultsshowing a small amount of ancestry from one continent may not actually meansomeone has any.http://tinyurl.com/zfubz

New Schizophrenia Cluefrom Newsday

For the first time, scientists have confirmed in human brains what they hadalready suspected: A large gene that regulates many brain functions isabnormal in people with schizophrenia.

The finding, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academyof Sciences, provides clues to how the gene, neuregulin-1, might disrupt

brain development and function and put people at risk for all sorts ofthinking problems.

"This is a very interesting study," said Dr. Gerald Fischbach, dean of thefaculty of medicine at Columbia University, who added that this finding mayone day lead to new ways to treat schizophrenia. Fischbach and hiscolleagues identified the gene in the early 1990s, and they suspected it hadsomething to do with the nervous system. It's only been in the past threeyears that a team of scientists in Iceland, at deCode Genetics, has linkedthe gene to schizophrenia. Since then, more than a half dozen laboratorieshave confirmed the link.http://tinyurl.com/oudla

Chronic Fatigue's Genetic Componentfrom the Washington Post

An intense battery of medical and psychological tests of people with chronicfatigue syndrome has strengthened the idea that the mysterious ailment isactually a collection of five or more conditions with varying genetic andenvironmental causes, scientists reported yesterday.

But though the syndrome comes in many flavors, these experts said, the newwork also points to an important common feature: The brains and immunesystems of affected people do not respond normally to physical andpsychological stresses.

The researchers predicted that continued clarification of the precise genesand hormones involved will lead to better diagnostic tests and therapies forthe ailment, which may affect close to 1 million Americans.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/20/AR2006042001869.html

Gene Behind Rare Bone Disorder Is Foundfrom the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

Researchers have discovered the gene that causes one of the rarestcongenital disorders, a disease called FOP that turns muscle and tendonsinto bone, forming a second skeleton that eventually renders the patientimmobile, like a statue.

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP, strikes about one in 2million people - so rarely that most physicians misdiagnose the disorder,often prescribing treatments that worsen the condition. About 600 patientsare known.

The majority of patients become bedridden by their 30s. There is no

treatment - removing the excess bone only makes it grow back faster.http://tinyurl.com/kpkb6

Studies Find Elusive Key to Cell Fate in Embryofrom the New York Times (Registration Required)

For three billion years, life on earth consisted of single-celled organismslike bacteria or algae. Only 600 million years ago did evolution hit on asystem for making multicellular organisms like animals and plants.

The key to the system is to give the cells that make up an organism avariety of different identities so that they can perform many different roles.

So even though all the cells carry the same genome, each type of cell mustbe granted access to only a few of the genes in the genome, with all theothers permanently denied to it.http://tinyurl.com/f3u9p

Genome Technology Heads to the Tablefrom Associated Press

AMES, Iowa -- Max Rothschild has been trying to "build" a better pig foralmost 30 years, since he took a job cleaning up after the hogs at his almamater, the University of California, Davis.

He's now a renowned swine scientist who has traded the dirty pigpens of hisundergraduate days for a glistening Iowa State University laboratorydedicated to producing tastier chops, safer pork and healthier pigs.

Rothschild is part of a national collaboration that earlier this yearreceived a $10 million federal grant to map pig genes. Researchers from theUniversity of Illinois-led project promise it will help take the guessworkout of breeding.http://tinyurl.com/ks9vz

Near Match of DNA Could Lead Police to More Suspectsfrom the Boston Globe (Registration Required)

Boston researchers said yesterday that police could identify many morerapists, murderers and other criminals by expanding the use of DNA databasesto find close relatives of suspects whose DNA is recovered from a crime scene.

Today, law enforcement laboratories take crime scene DNA and compare it withlarge libraries of DNA obtained from convicts, looking for a perfect match.If there is only a near match, the researchers suggest, that person islikely to be a sibling, parent, or child of the suspect, providing

detectives with a lead.

The technique has been used in a handful of cases, in which identifying arelative was the crucial break that allowed detectives to focus theirinvestigation on a particular suspect and solve the crime. The new research,published in today's issue of the journal Science, concludes that familialsearching could be a broadly effective tool for law enforcement. Onecomputer simulation shows it would increase the number of times DNA wouldpoint to a suspect by 40 percent.http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/05/12/near_match_of_dna_could_lead_police_to_more_suspects/orhttp://tinyurl.com/sygyc

Humans, Chimps May Have Bred After Splitfrom the Boston Globe (Registration Required)

Boston scientists released a provocative report yesterday that challengesthe timeline of human evolution and suggests that human ancestors bred withchimpanzee ancestors long after they had initially separated into two species.

The researchers, working at the Cambridge-based Broad Institute of Harvardand MIT, used a wealth of newly available genetic data to estimate the timewhen the first human ancestors split from the chimpanzees. The team arrivedat an answer that is at least 1 million years later than paleontologists hadbelieved, based on fossils of early, humanlike creatures.

The lead scientist said that this jarring conflict with the fossil record,combined with a number of other strange genetic patterns the team uncovered,led him to a startling explanation: that human ancestors evolved apart fromthe chimpanzees for hundreds of thousands of years, and then startedbreeding with them again before a final break.http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/05/18/humans_chimps_may_have_bred_after_split/orhttp://tinyurl.com/gmtfk

New Antibiotic Aimed at Resistant Genesfrom Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Scientists have found a chemical that might one day provecritical in the ongoing fight against germs that have developed resistanceto existing antibiotics.

The compound, discovered by researchers from the pharmaceutical firm Merck &

Co., could herald the first major new class of antibiotics in decades. Ithas already proven effective in curing mice infected withantibiotic-resistant bacteria.

That doesn't mean it will work in people, but outside experts are impressedwith the results, which are reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature.http://www.newsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-new-antibiotic,0,4915612.storyorhttp://tinyurl.com/o5ffb

Mice Deaths Are Setback in Gene Testfrom the New York Times (Registration Required)

A large number of mice died unexpectedly in a test of a new technique forinactivating genes that has been widely proclaimed a breakthrough,scientists are reporting today.

The finding could give rise to new caution about the technique, called RNAinterference, which is already widely used in laboratory experiments and isstarting to be tested in people as a means of treating diseases by silencingthe genes that cause them.

But Dr. Mark A. Kay and colleagues at the Stanford University School ofMedicine report today in the journal Nature that the technique, also calledRNAi for short, caused liver poisoning and death in mice.http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/science/25rna.html

http://tinyurl.com/kflyt

Spotty Mice Flout Genetics Lawsfrom BBC News

Scientists say they have demonstrated that animals can defy the laws ofgenetic inheritance.

Researchers found that mice can pass on traits to their offspring even ifthe gene behind those traits is absent.

The scientists suggest RNA, a chemical cousin of DNA, passes on thecharacteristic - in this experiment, a spotty tail - to later generations.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5011826.stm

http://tinyurl.com/g9ycg

Genghis Khan Tied to Professor by DNAfrom the Miami Herald (via chron.com)

MIAMI - A British research firm recently combed 25,000 DNA samples searchingfor a modern descendant of Genghis Khan from outside the Mongolian warlord'sancient empire.

They found the first one: a University of Miami accounting professor with areceding hairline.

Tom Robinson, a 48-year-old Palmetto Bay, Fla., resident, has taken the oddnews with amiable modesty. In some quarters, he's being treated like the guywho walks into a store and finds out he's the millionth customer. TheMongolian ambassador to the United States plans to invite him as an honoredguest to his Washington embassy.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3925174.htmlorhttp://tinyurl.com/g4a6a

Research Finds Sperm Quality Drops, Genetic Problems Rise as Men Agefrom the San Francisco Chronicle

With a lineup of Bay Area men at their disposal, Lawrence Livermorescientists have deflated yet another cherished male fantasy -- that spermquality resists the ravages of age.

In fact, the genetic quality of sperm deteriorates as time goes by.

The Livermore analysis of sperm samples from men ages 22-80 found a gradualbut steady increase in the percentage of genetic mutations over time,raising the risk of infertility and of fathering children with geneticabnormalities.http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/06/MNGP7J8RSP1.DTL