Wednesday, November 28, 2007
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Science Articles about DNA from the NYT

Science Articles  about DNA from the NYT



My Genome, Myself: Seeking Clues in DNA
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/us/17dna.html
Series: The DNA Age By AMY HARMON
The exploration of the human genome has long been relegated to elite scientists in research laboratories. But that is about to change. An infant industry is capitalizing on the plunging cost of genetic testing technology to offer any individual unprecedented and unmediated entree to their own DNA.
For as little as $1,000 and a saliva sample, customers will be able to learn what is known so far about how the billions of bits in their biological code shape who they are. Three companies have already announced plans to market such services, one yesterday.
Offered the chance to be among the early testers, I agreed, but not without reservations. What if I learned I was likely to die young? Or that I might have passed on a rogue gene to my daughter? And more pragmatically, what if an insurance company or an employer used such information against me in the future?
But three weeks later, I was already somewhat addicted to the daily communion with my genes. (Recurring note to self: was this addiction genetic?)
For example, my hands hurt the other day. So naturally, I checked my DNA.

Experts Advise a Grain of Salt With Mail-Order Genomes, at $1,000 a Pop
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/us/17genome.html
By NICHOLAS WADE
The revolution in human genomics, still barely understood in the doctor's office, is about to hit the street, at least for those able to pay about $1,000 for a glance at their entire genome.
The Icelandic company deCODE Genetics announced yesterday that it is now offering a service called deCODEme, which will assess a person's genome for risk of common diseases, bodily traits like hair and eye color, and ancestral origins. Subscribers have to send in a scraping of cells from inside the cheek and a check for $985.


Cancer Free at 33, but Weighing a Mastectomy
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/health/16gene.html
By AMY HARMON
CHICAGO Her latest mammogram was clean. But Deborah Lindner, 33, was tired of constantly looking for the lump.
Ever since a DNA test had revealed her unusually high chance of developing breast cancer, Ms. Lindner had agonized over whether to have a mastectomy, a procedure that would reduce her risk by 90 percent.


As Breeders Test DNA, Dogs Become Guinea Pigs
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/science/12dog.html
By AMY HARMON
FORT MOTT STATE PARK, N.J. When mutant, muscle-bound puppies started showing up in litters of champion racing whippets, the breeders of the normally sleek dogs invited scientists to take DNA samples at race meets here and across the country. They hoped to find a genetic cause for the condition and a way to purge it from the breed.
It worked. Bully whippets, as the heavyset dogs are known, turn out to have a genetic mutation that enhances muscle development. And breeders may not want to eliminate the bully gene after all. The scientists found that the same mutation that pumps up some whippets makes others among the fastest dogs on the track.
With a DNA screening test on the way, Were going to keep the speed and lose the bullies, Helena James, a whippet breeder in Vancouver, British Columbia, said.

Prenatal Test Puts Down Syndrome in Hard Focus
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/us/09down.html
By AMY HARMON
DETROIT Sarah Itoh, a self-described almost-eleven-and-a-half, betrayed no trace of nervousness as she told a roomful of genetic counselors and obstetricians about herself one recent afternoon.
She likes to read, she said. Math used to be hard, but it is getting easier. She plays clarinet in her school band. She is a junior girl scout and an aunt, and she likes to organize, so he
room is very clean. Last year, she won three medals in the Special Olympics.
I am so lucky I get to do so many things, she concluded. I just want you to know, even though I have Down syndrome, it is O.K.


Stalking Strangers' DNA to Fill in the Family Tree
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/us/02dna.html
By AMY HARMON
They swab the cheeks of strangers and pluck hairs from corpses. They travel hundreds of miles to entice their suspects with an old photograph, or sometimes a free drink. Cooperation is preferred, but not necessarily required to achieve their ends.
If the amateur genealogists of the DNA era bear a certain resemblance to members of a CSI team, they make no apologies. Prompted by the advent of inexpensive genetic testing, they are tracing their family trees with a vengeance heretofore unknown.
People who realize the potential of DNA, said Katherine Borges, a co-founder of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy, will go to great lengths to get it.


Facing Life With a Lethal Gene
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/health/18huntington.html
Ms. Moser was 23. It had taken her months to convince the clinic at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan that she wanted, at such a young age, to find out whether she carried the gene for Huntingtons disease.
Huntingtons, the incurable brain disorder that possessed her grandfathers body and ravaged his mind for three decades, typically strikes in middle age. But most young adults who know the disease runs in their family have avoided the DNA test that can tell whether they will get it, preferring the torture and hope of not knowing.
Ms. Moser is part of a vanguard of people at risk for Huntingtons who are choosing to learn early what their future holds. Facing their genetic heritage, they say, will help them decide how to live their lives.


DNA Gatherers Hit Snag: Tribes Don't Trust Them
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/us/10dna.html
By AMY HARMON Correction Appended
SOUTH NAKNEK, Alaska The National Geographic Societys multimillion-dollar research project to collect DNA from indigenous groups around the world in the hopes of reconstructing humanitys ancient migrations has come to a standstill on its home turf in North America.
Billed as the moon shot of anthropology, the Genographic Project intends to collect 100,000 indigenous DNA samples. But for four months, the project has been on hold here as it scrambles to address questions raised by a group that oversees research involving Alaska natives.
At issue is whether scientists who need DNA from aboriginal populations to fashion a window on the past are underselling the risks to present-day donors. Geographic origin stories told by DNA can clash with long-held beliefs, threatening a world view some indigenous leaders see as vital to preserving their culture.
They argue that genetic ancestry information could also jeopardize land rights and other benefits that are based on the notion that their people have lived in a place since the beginning of time.

Couples Cull Embryos to Halt Heritage of Cancer
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/health/03gene.web.html
By AMY HARMON
As Chad Kingsbury watches his daughter playing in the sandbox behind their suburban Chicago house, the thought that has flashed through his mind a million times in her two years of life comes again: Chloe will never be sick.
Not, at least, with the inherited form of colon cancer that has devastated his family, killing his mother, her father and her two brothers, and that he too may face because of a genetic mutation that makes him unusually susceptible.
By subjecting Chloe to a genetic test when she was an eight-cell embryo in a petri dish, Mr. Kingsbury and his wife, Colby, were able to determine that she did not harbor the defective gene. That was the reason they selected her, from among the other embryos they had conceived through elective in vitro fertilization, to implant in her mothers uterus.

That Wild Streak? Maybe It Runs in the Family
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/15/health/15gene.html
By AMY HARMON
Jason Dallas used to think of his daredevil streak a love of backcountry skiing, mountain bikes and fast vehicles as "a personality thing."
Then he heard that scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle had linked risk-taking behavior in mice to a gene. Those without it pranced unprotected along a steel beam instead of huddling in safety like the other mice.
Now Mr. Dallas, a chef in Seattle, is convinced he has a genetic predisposition for risk-taking, a conclusion the researchers say is not unwarranted, since they believe similar variations in human genes can explain why people perceive danger differently.
"It's in your blood," Mr. Dallas said. "You hear people say that kind of thing, but now you know it really is."



Backward evolution” Spawns Ape-Like People. Dictionary for skeptics who would like to enhance their ability to tell people that they're probably wrong about intelligent design.

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Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:18:20 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  |  Related posts:
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