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Next
Event
Friday, August 22, 2008, 07:00 PM: Simulations of Society with Loren Cobb
Loren Cobb will present his peculiar 15-year journey into sociological model-making for various military entities, including US Southern Command, the Swedish Ministry of Defence, the British Ministry of Defence, the United Nations, and a miscellany of Latin American countries (Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, ...).
More...
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Genetics
 George Church is dyslexic, narcoleptic, and a vegan. He is married with one daughter, weighs about 210 pounds, and has worn a pioneer-style bushy beard for decades. He has elevated levels of creatine kinase in his blood, the consequence of a heart attack. He enjoys waterskiing, photography, rock climbing, and singing in his church choir. His mother's maiden name is Strong. He was born on August 28, 1954.
If this all seems like too much information, well, blame Church himself.
As Church sees it, the only real utility to his personal information is as data that reflects his phenotype — his physical traits and characteristics. If your genome is the blueprint of your genetic potential written across 6 billion base pairs of DNA, your phenome is the resulting edifice, how you actually turn out after the environment has had its say, influencing which genes get expressed and which traits repressed. Imagine that we could collect complete sets of data — genotype and phenotype — for a whole population. You would very quickly begin to see meaningful and powerful correlations between particular genetic sequences and particular physical characteristics, from height and hair color to disease risk and personality.
Church has done more than imagine such an undertaking; he has launched it: The Personal Genome Project.
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Pacific Biosciences has been developing a DNA sequencing machine that within a few years might be able to unravel an individual’s entire genome in minutes, for less than $1,000. The company plans to make its first public presentation about the technology on Saturday.
Pacific Biosciences, or PacBio, is just one entrant in a heated race for the “$1,000 genome” — a gold rush of activity whose various contestants threaten to shake up the current $1-billion-a-year market for machines that sequence, or read, genomes.
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Newest Nobel Laureate for Medicine, Sir Martin Evans, and colleague Alan Clarke discuss the medical revolution of Gene targeting. Also Prof's Jerry Coyne and Mike Majerus attempt to reinstate the otherwise humble Peppered Moth to its status as textbook example of natural selection in action.
Audio, 28 minutes
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Korean scientists have cloned three female dogs, the world’s first after the male hound Snuppy. The team says the success rate in terms of births to implanted embryos is more than thirty times that for Snuppy, who is credited to the disgraced geneticist Hwang Woo-suk. A team of Seoul National University veterinarians led by Lee Byeong-chun and Kim Dae-yong said Sunday the cloned female dog Bona was born on June 18 this year via somatic cell nuclear transfer, the same technology used for Snuppy, by using cells taken from an adult female dog's ear.
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DNA chips have revolutionised biological research. With the help of a microarray, researchers can query the whole genome at once, rather than just a few genes at a time. Experiments that used to be impossible are now being performed in days or hours. "By being able to see the big picture, all the genes, all the genetic variation, we can readily pick out answers—we can make discoveries that we could never make before," explains Eric Lander, one of the leaders of the human-genome project.
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Researchers are now better able to predict which patients will respond to treatment for depression through the presence of genetic markers. McMahon examined the effects of polymorphisms (common differences in DNA sequences) of 68 genes on treatment effectiveness and incidence of side effects. Analysis of the data showed that polymorphisms in a gene that regulates serotonin was positively associated with treatment outcome. McMahon concluded that individuals who carried two copies of the polymorphism associated with response were 18% more likely to respond to treatment than those who did not.
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New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. A team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place 6-10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.
"Originally, we all had brown eyes. But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch', which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes". The OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P protein, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives colour to our hair, eyes and skin. The "switch", which is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 does not, however, turn off the gene entirely, but rather limits its action to reducing the production of melanin in the iris – effectively "diluting" brown eyes to blue.
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Rafflesia (Rafflesiaceae)—a parasitic plant whose flower weighs more than a bowling ball and reeks of rotting flesh—has finally found its family. Found on rainforest floors in southern Asia, rafflesia has baffled botanists for two centuries. It is hard to classify because it is rootless, shootless and leafless; it only has a sinewy stem which it uses to siphon the nutrients and water it needs from the host plant it parasitizes.
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The human gut teems with bacteria. There are 10 microbes in the body for every human cell thanks mainly to the profusion of colonies in the intestines. Yet babies are born without any such germ populations; rather they develop them in fits and starts over time. Now researchers have mapped this development for the first time in 14 California babies, including a set of fraternal twins.
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Euribrid announces the first large-scale commercial use of "Genomic Selection" technology in poultry. This is also the first time such a large set of DNA markers has been used in commercial animal breeding. The animals for this application were born on November 22, 2006. Although the basics of this technology are available, large-scale use of this application is still rare.
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Michael Crichton's new novel is a satire on the science and laws surrounding genetics. The subject matter is too absurd to treat any other way, he says. Michael Crichton used to tell people that his sense of humour had been surgically removed. His books contained few gags and little irony. But now he has written a satire about the state of the law and the science of genetics. "This makes it a bit of a departure," he says, "but it seems to me that the situation and the subject matter are so absurd that, unless you treat them as funny, you almost can’t discuss them ... and I am absolutely convinced that more people in the UK have a sense of humour than in the United States."
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Celera today announced the publication of its findings that variants in two genes (IL12B and IL23R) involved in regulating the behavior of cells of the immune system independently contribute to psoriasis risk. Individuals who carry two copies of the risk alleles for both these genes, which occur in approximately 25 percent of Caucasians, were found to have a three-fold increased risk for psoriasis relative to individuals with certain other genotypes of these genes. These research findings provide genetic evidence to support the ongoing development of therapeutics that target the interleukin-12 and interleukin-23 (IL-12 and IL-23) pathways.
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By injecting fluorescent green protein into embryonic pigs, a research team at the Northeast Agricultural University managed to breed three transgenic pigs. "The mouth, trotters and tongue of the pigs are green under ultraviolet light." Genetic material from jellyfish was injected into the womb of a sow which gave birth to the three pigs 114 days later.
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Researchers have discovered that the genetic malfunction that causes a form of mental retardation called Noonan Syndrome (NS) produces an imbalance in the genesis of two types of cells in the developing embryonic brain. NS is a relatively common genetic disorder, occurring in one of every 2,500 live births. It is characterized by congenital heart defects, short stature, learning disabilities, and mental retardation. Approximately 50% of NS cases are caused by a genetic mutation in a biochemical switch called SHP-2. SHP-2 is involved in molecular pathways regulating development of brain cells. The NS mutations cause SHP-2 to be constantly activated.
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 June Wong thinks she's found the way to make the online social networking craze that has enveloped youth culture relevant to adults.
Rather than exchanging photos, music and cellphone numbers, as many of the 100 million members of MySpace.com do, participants in Ms. Wong's online community share Y-DNA markers and mtDNA Haplogroups.
With a swab of the mouth and access to Genetrack's site DNAancestryproject.com, clients can trace their lineage for possible connections to famous figures of the past, such as Marie Antoinette, whose DNA has been preserved in a locket of her hair.
The farther back in time, the wider the family connections. For example, one in five men in the northwest of Ireland carry the DNA of the great Irish king Niall Noigiallach, who ruled in the early 5th century. And they estimate that 2 per cent of New York's European males today also share the royal chromosome.
Turning back the clock to prehistoric times, the website lets participants track the migratory paths their distant ancestors took out of Africa and even connect with people of related groups today.
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Cancer immunoresistance may be partially due to loss of a well-known tumor suppressor gene. It has been known for a long time that cancer cells have many different ways to avoid the immune system, including the common strategies of hiding proteins that are normally expressed on the cell surface or making proteins that act to suppress immune responses. Some researchers believe that immunoresistance may contribute to cancer progression and development. Over the past four years, Parsa's lab has focused on trying to understand how specific mutations associated with high grade glioma correlate with immunoresistance.
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A new genetic test targeting the most common types of muscular dystrophy -- those caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene -- is far quicker with greater accuracy and sensitivity than existing tests. It can be used to confirm clinical diagnoses, to test female family members who may be carriers, and to perform prenatal testing. Muscular dystrophy includes more than 30 genetic diseases characterized by progressive weakness and degeneration of the skeletal muscles that control movement.
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A recent study appears to show for first time evidence that human embryonic stem cell lines can differentiate into germ (reproductive) cells.
Similar results have been seen in mice embryonic cell lines, but this is the first time such cell differentiation has been documented occurring in human cell lines.
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In the decade since the birth of Dolly the sheep, in Scotland, cloning has plodded on as an inefficient science. Several mammalian species have been cloned using the same nuclear transfer technique. But even work with the mouse—the benchmark model organism for techniques and therapies destined for human application—has been hampered by low cloning efficiency rates on the order of one birth for every 100 implanted embryos. "The failure rate is so impressive, it's a struggle every day to get anything to go." Researchers announced the creation of mice cloned from mouse skin cells, several of which survived into adulthood; the eldest of the litter is now nearly two years old.
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I am neither markedly masculine nor notably effeminate. Nor am
I typically perceived as androgynous, not in my uniform of
Diesels and boots, not even when I was younger and favored
dangling earrings and bright Jack Purcells. But most people
immediately read me (correctly) as gay. It takes only a glance
to make my truth obvious. I know this from strangers who find
gay people offensive enough to elicit a remark—catcalls from
cab windows, to use a recent example—as well as from
countless casual social engagements in which people easily
assume my orientation, no sensitive gaydar necessary. I’m not
so much out-of-the-closet as "self-evident."
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To understand tumor growth, a group of mathematicians applied a model based on a mathematical technique called optimal control theory, and got some interesting results: looked at cancer from the point of view of a tumor and asked: What can a tumor do to optimize its own growth? They focused on the phenomenon of genetic instability, a common feature of cancer in which cells mutate at an abnormally fast rate.
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Thomas Gilbert has developed a new and more precise method for analysing DNA in collaboration with international colleagues. The method is based on analysis of hair shafts and can be used for many things e.g. uncovering the life of mammoths during the ice-age or human migration studies across continents. Or even to analyse hair from a crime-scene.
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Researchers has uncovered a key step in the molecular pathway of repairing DNA double-strand breaks. The team showed that 53BP1 - a human protein essential for repairing DNA double-strand breaks - is recruited to the sites of DNA damage by direct interaction with histone H4, a protein constituent of the DNA packaging structure called chromatin.
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Roger Kornberg won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his efforts to unravel the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription, in which enzymes give 'voice' to DNA by copying it into the RNA molecules that serve as templates for protein in organisms from yeast to humans. Now, Kornberg and his colleagues report new structures that reveal another critical piece of the puzzle: how the so-called polymerase II enzyme discriminates among potential RNA building blocks to ensure the characteristic accuracy of the process. The researchers found that a portion of the enzyme known as the trigger loop acts like a 'trap door,' swinging beneath a matching nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) building block, to close off the active center and form an extensive network of interactions with the NTP and other parts of the enzyme.
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Researchers have identified a key family of genes and proteins that help bring C. elegans chromosomes together during meiosis. This specialized cell division produces gametes, or sex cells, each of which has only one copy of each chromosome instead of the two copies most cells carry. During meiosis a cell replicates and then divides twice, resulting in sperm or eggs with just one set of chromosomes each. For meiosis to work properly, corresponding chromosomes must first identify each other, then line up accurately and stay together during the recombination process. Different organisms use different methods for these critical steps; in C. elegans, the job is initiated by regions called Pairing Centers, which are found near one end of each of the worm's six chromosome. Dernburg's lab has been studying the role of these special regions.
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"Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells" wasn't the catchiest of titles for a scientific paper.
But its publication in the science journal Nature on February 27, 1997 created headlines around the globe and gave us the world's first, and probably last, superstar sheep.
Unveiled to the world's press by Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland on February 22, 1997, Dolly the Sheep was the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell. She was actually born a few months earlier on July 5, 1996.
Previously, cloning had only been achieved by using embryo cells, but Dolly was created by taking a cell from a six year-old Finn Dorset ewe.
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James Watson, codiscoverer of the structure of DNA, now has a copy of his very own genome. Will you be next? On Thursday, James Watson was handed a DVD containing his entire genome, sequenced in the past few months by 454, a company based in Branford, CT, that's developing next-generation technologies for efficiently reading the genome. At a cost of $2 million, 454 sequenced Watson's genome for roughly an order of magnitude less than it would have cost using traditional machines. While this is still too expensive for the average Joe, experts say that the advance marks a major milestone toward personal-genome sequencing--and more-personalized medicine--for all.
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The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has called for a public consultation into the use of animal eggs to create cloned hybrid or chimeric human embryos for laboratory-based disease research.
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Researchers have discovered a novel gene mutation associated with Wilms tumor, the most common pediatric kidney cancer. The newly identified gene is mutated in about 30 percent of cases of Wilms tumor and is located on the sex-determining X chromosome, which means that a single altered copy would be sufficient for tumor formation. The new gene does not appear linked to inherited forms of the disease.
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Genetic fingerprints that reveal where a brain cell came from remain distinct even after the cell becomes a brain tumor.
"Brain tumors arising in different regions may be genetically distinct as a consequence of their unique cellular origins."
Researchers use information about tumor origins to develop new treatments for the tumors. Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related death in children, and the most common childhood brain tumor is the pilocytic astrocytoma (PA).
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