Instituto de la Ciencia y Tecnología en América Latina (ICTAL) - GenéticaPortal dedicado a la ciencia, el desarrollo, y los derechos humanos... 2024-03-18T13:03:04-04:00urn:md5:c3c53f2c54ac152a71614d9b9f660d3dDotclearConsumer DNA Testing May Be the Biggest Health Scam of the Decadeurn:md5:3ba4759ddac46560f8d899de83286d172019-11-20T12:10:00-04:002019-11-20T12:10:00-04:00cguajonGenética <p><br />Source: Gizmodo<br /><br /><br />At the start of this decade, the federal government called out consumer DNA testing as a burgeoning scam industry. Little did we know how it would explode in popularity. <br /><br />In 2010, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published an investigative report that bashed consumer DNA test companies for misleading the public. It accused them of deceptively claiming their products could predict the odds of developing more than a dozen medical conditions; some even went as far to offer equally dubious dietary supplements. The report had followed a similar lambasting of the industry by the GAO in 2006.<br /><br />Also in 2010, the FDA publicly warned 23andMe and other companies that genetic health tests were considered medical devices and needed to be cleared by the FDA before they could be sold to the public. Three years later, following a lack of response from 23andMe, the agency took the harsh step of temporarily banning 23andMe from selling its health-related tests at all.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://gizmodo.com/consumer-dna-testing-may-be-the-biggest-health-scam-of-1839358522">https://gizmodo.com/consumer-dna-testing-may-be-the-biggest-health-scam-of-1839358522</a><br /><br /></p>Infected travelers reveal Cuba’s ‘hidden’ Zika outbreakurn:md5:7c9969d86f7c13588a4dcb8b5ba70b752019-08-26T08:51:00-04:002019-08-26T08:51:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaCubaMedicina <p><br />Source: Science Magazine<br /><br /><br />As Zika virus raced through the Americas and the Caribbean in 2015 and 2016, it infected an estimated 800,000 people and left nearly 4000 newborns with serious brain damage. But by mid-2017, the virus had all but disappeared from the region—or so it seemed. A new analysis of Zika-infected travelers who returned to the United States or Europe in 2017 or 2018 has found that 98% had visited Cuba, which did not report any cases to world health officials at the time the country’s outbreak apparently peaked.<br /><br />“It was startling,” says Kristian Andersen, a genomic epidemiologist at Scripps Research in San Diego, California, who led the work conducted by 38 researchers from five countries. The group estimates that Cuba had 5707 unreported Zika cases, with most occurring in 2017. Those numbers are similar to counts in other Caribbean islands with comparable populations 1 year earlier.<br /><br />In February 2016, the Zika outbreak was so severe in South America and the Caribbean that the World Health Organization (WHO) took the rare step of declaring it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. But by November 2016, cases in the region had fallen steeply and WHO lifted the emergency.<br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/infected-travelers-reveal-cuba-s-hidden-zika-outbreak">https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/infected-travelers-reveal-cuba-s-hidden-zika-outbreak</a><br /><br /></p>The human body is a mosaic of different genomesurn:md5:dfd2ccf995ee74ad64fbb216e0812df02019-06-09T20:30:00-04:002019-06-09T20:30:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaEvolución <p><br />Source: Nature<br /><br /><br /><br />The human body is a complex mosaic made up of clusters of cells with different genomes — and many of these clusters bear mutations that could contribute to cancer, according to a sweeping survey of 29 different types of tissue.<br /><br />It is the largest such study to date, and compiles data from thousands of samples collected from about 500 people. The results, published on 6 June in Science1, could help scientists to better understand how cancer starts, and how to detect it earlier.<br /><br />“We now appreciate that we are mosaics’, and that a substantial number of cells in our body already carry cancer mutations,” says Iñigo Martincorena, a geneticist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK. “These are the seeds of cancer.”<br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01780-9">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01780-9</a><br /><br /></p>World Health Organization panel weighs in on CRISPR-babies debateurn:md5:955da02e0b35a70401a60d6a900edf262019-03-20T09:01:00-04:002019-03-20T09:01:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaDerechos HumanosMedicina <p><br />Source: Nature<br /><br /><br />The World Health Organization (WHO) should create a global registry of studies that involve editing the human genome, and research funders and publishers should require scientists to participate in it, a group advising the WHO said on 19 March.<br /><br />The panel, which the WHO created in February after a scientist in China edited the genomes of twin girls, also condemned the clinical application of research that alters the genome of human eggs, sperm or embryos — the so-called germline — in ways that can be passed to future generations.<br /><br />“The committee agrees it is irresponsible at this time for anyone to proceed at this time with clinical applications of human germline genome editing,” said Margaret Hamburg, the panel’s co-chair and the foreign secretary of the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS).<br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00942-z">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00942-z</a><br /><br /></p>Controversial CRISPR baby experiment may have resulted in brain enhancementsurn:md5:faae5d2327b4ebb8649110620790011f2019-03-03T16:08:00-04:002019-03-03T16:08:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaChinaDerechos Humanos <p><br />Source: Digital Trends<br /><br /><br />China’s CRISPR baby saga continues to rage on. After the birth of gene-edited twins in China last year, and the reported pregnancy of a second woman, the world’s scientific community voiced their shock at what sounds (provided it’s accurate) like an ethical nightmare. Now scientists have expressed concerns that the procedure may also have resulted in changes in the babies’ brains that could affect cognition and memory.<br /><br />The genetic modifications were intended to eliminate a gene called CCR5, thought to be responsible for potentially fatal diseases including HIV, smallpox, and cholera. A newly published research paper in the journal Cell suggests that CCR5 manipulation can additionally lead to enhanced recovery after brain injury, including motor recovery following strokes. While this has only been demonstrated (outside of China) in mouse models, the findings could conceivably be applicable in human subjects. It is not clear whether Chinese researcher He Jiankui was trying to modify the intelligence of his subjects with his controversial experimentation.<br /><br />But why, if the changes are positive, is this such a bad thing? Principally, for the same reasons that the news shocked scientists when it was first announced. Human testing of such unproven treatments is deeply unethical, and carries an extremely high risk. Data submitted as part of the trial (for which the lead scientist has now been sacked from his associated university) indicated that genetic testing has been conducted on fetuses as old as six months.<br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/china-crispr-baby-experiment-cognition-changes/">https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/china-crispr-baby-experiment-cognition-changes/</a><br /></p>‘Gene-edited babies’ is one of the most censored topics on Chinese social mediaurn:md5:93894e2243cf77ea76fa8f885416ea342019-03-03T16:06:00-04:002019-03-03T16:06:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaChinaDerechos Humanos <p><br />Source: Nature<br /><br />The controversial topic of the first babies born from gene-edited embryos was one of the most censored on Chinese social media last year, according to researchers at the University of Hong Kong.<br /><br />On 11 February, media researchers Marcus Wang and Stella Fan posted an article to the news website Global Voices in which they describe a censorship project they are part of called WeChatscope.<br /><br />WeChatscope, they say, tracks articles that have been deleted from 4000 public accounts on WeChat, China’s most popular social-media platform, which has an average of 500,000 users a day. The project preserves deleted posts in a database.<br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK<br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00607-x">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00607-x</a><br /><br /><br /></p>The ecological roots of human susceptibility to social influenceurn:md5:6099ef324479fc28af219e0e8b9751a02019-01-15T19:21:00-04:002019-01-15T19:22:06-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaCulturaEvolución <br />Source: RoyalSociety Open Science<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The ecological roots of human susceptibility to social influence: a pre-registered study investigating the impact of early-life adversity<br />Pierre O. Jacquet , Lou Safra , Valentin Wyart , Nicolas Baumard and Coralie Chevallier<br /><div>Published:09 January 2019https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180454</div>Abstract<br /><br />There is considerable variability in the degree to which individuals rely on their peers to make decisions. Although theoretical models predict that environmental risks shift the cost–benefit trade-off associated with social information use, this idea has received little empirical support. Here we aim to test the effect of childhood environmental adversity on humans' susceptibility to follow others’ opinion in the context of a standard face evaluation task. Results collected in a pilot study involving 121 adult participants tested online showed that susceptibility to social influence and childhood environmental adversity are positively associated. Computational analyses further confirmed that this effect is not explained by the fact that participants exposed to early adversity produce noisier decisions overall but that they are indeed more likely to follow the group's opinion. To test the robustness of these findings, a pre-registered direct replication using an optimal sample size was run. The results obtained from 262 participants in the pre-registered study did not reveal a significant association between childhood adversity and task performance but the meta-analysis ran on both the pilot and the pre-registered study replicated the initial finding. This work provides experimental evidence for an association between individuals' past ecology and their susceptibility to social influence.<br /><br />1. Background<br /><br />Modern western societies take for granted that intellectual autonomy, creativity and originality are universally valued. ‘Free-thinkers’, ‘rebels’ or ‘subversive attitudes' are indeed positively valued and parents even encourage their children to have their own opinion and to ‘be leaders rather than followers’. But such independence is in fact not highly regarded in every society and at every time in history [1]. Pre-industrial Europe, for instance, emphasized the importance of conformity and traditionalism, individuals took pride in following the ‘ancients’, and parents taught their children to be obedient, to revere their elders and to abide by the majority [2–4]. Within societies, individuals also vary in the degree to which they rely on others' views to make decisions and form opinions [5–8]. Why is that the case? Why are some environments seemingly more conducive to individual exploration while other environments promote more social forms of information acquisition?<br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.180454">https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.180454</a><br /><br /><br /><br />CRISPR-baby scientist fails to satisfy criticsurn:md5:0117b0f1f06c3e22a16f776fb67197232018-11-30T09:51:00-04:002018-11-30T09:51:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaChinaDerechos Humanos <p><br />Source: Nature<br /><br /><br /><br />He Jiankui, a Chinese scientist who claims he helped to produce the first people born with edited genomes — twin baby girls — appeared today at a gene-editing summit in Hong Kong to explain his experiment. He delivered his talk amid threats of legal action and mounting questions, from the scientific community and beyond, about the ethics of his work.<br /><br />He had never before presented his work publicly, outside a handful of videos he posted on YouTube. Scientists welcomed the fact that he appeared at all — but his talk left many hungry for more answers, and still not completely certain that He’s claims are accurate.<br /><br />“There’s no reason not to believe him,” says Robin Lovell-Badge, a developmental biologist at the Francis Crick Institute in London. “I’m just not completely convinced.”<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07573-w">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07573-w</a><br /><br /><br /></p>Genome-edited baby claim provokes international outcryurn:md5:f4f2f57ffcc83554b03a20644afc49c82018-11-26T08:06:00-04:002018-11-26T08:06:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaChinaDerechos Humanos <p><br />Source: Nature<br /><br /><br /><br />A Chinese scientist claims that he has helped make the world's first genome-edited babies — twin girls named Lulu and Nana, who were born this month. The announcement has provoked shock, and some outrage, among scientists around the world.<br /><br />He Jiankui, a genome-editing researcher from the Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, says that he implanted into a woman an embryo that had been edited to disable the genetic pathway that allows a cell to be infected with HIV.<br /><br />In a video posted to YouTube, He says the girls are healthy and now at home with their parents. Genome sequencing of their DNA has shown that the editing worked, and only altered the gene they targeted, he says.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07545-0">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07545-0</a><br /><br /></p>How the people of the Andes evolved to live in high altitudesurn:md5:5f3a7a37199e53dd40b741bd5cbb4afd2018-11-13T07:27:00-04:002018-11-16T11:01:11-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaMesoAmericaPeru <p><br />Source: Science Magazine<br /><br /><br /><br />Scarce oxygen, cold temperatures, and intense ultraviolet radiation make the Andes a tough place to live. How did humans adapt to such heights? A new study of ancient and modern DNA suggests in some South American highlanders, the answer includes changes to their heart muscles. The same study found that ancient highlanders adapted to digest starch more easily as they came to rely on potatoes for food, and that they most likely split from their lowland brethren some 8750 years ago. But those conclusions have been questioned by scientists who say the comparison population is simply too distant to reveal anything specific about highland life.<br /><br />To find out how ancient Andeans adapted to living at more than 2500 meters, John Lindo, a population geneticist at Emory University in Atlanta, sequenced seven genomes from people who lived near Lake Titicaca in the Peruvian Andes from 6800 years ago to about 1800 years ago. The team then compared those genomes to genetic data from two modern populations: the high-living Aymara of Bolivia, and the Huilliche-Pehuenche, who live on the lowland coast of southern Chile.<br /><br />Another high-dwelling folk—the people of the Tibetan plateau—have genetic variations that reduce hemoglobin levels in their blood and make their bodies extremely efficient at using oxygen. So Lindo and his colleagues scanned the ancient South American genomes for signs of similar adaptations. They didn’t find what they were looking for, but they did see signs of selection on a gene called DST, related to cardiovascular health and heart muscle development, they report today in Science Advances. That, says Mark Aldenderfer, an archaeologist at the University of California (UC), Merced, and a co-author of the new study, “suggests a very different process by which ancient Andean people adapted to high elevation life.”<br /><br />An even stronger sign of natural selection turned up in genes related to starch digestion. Because the starchy potato was domesticated in the Andes and quickly became a dietary staple, such an adaptation makes sense, Lindo says. By measuring the number of random genetic differences that accumulated steadily over time between the highland and lowland populations, Lindo’s team estimates the genetic split between those peoples likely happened about 8750 years ago, a date that fits with archaeological data.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/how-people-andes-evolved-live-high-altitudes">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/how-people-andes-evolved-live-high-altitudes</a><br /></p>Mexico’s new science minister is a plant biologist who opposes transgenic cropsurn:md5:81ac15301a119a8c97ccc87288302c582018-10-09T08:07:00-04:002018-10-09T08:07:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaEconomía PolíticaMexicoPolitica <p><br />Source: Science Magazine<br /><br /><br /><br />MEXICO CITY—In early June, evolutionary developmental biologist Elena Álvarez-Buylla received an out-of-the-blue phone call from the campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, then the front-runner in Mexico's presidential election, with a question. If López Obrador won, would she consider becoming the next director of the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), the country's science ministry and primary granting agency? "My first reaction was to say, ‘I can't,’" recalls Álvarez-Buylla, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) here. "I have a great passion for scientific research," and she couldn't imagine leaving the laboratory.<br /><br />But after thinking it over for a few hours, her passion for public service took over. "I started to have a feeling that I couldn't say no," says Álvarez-Buylla, who founded and leads Mexico's Union of Scientists Committed to Society (UCCS). "It doesn't matter how big the personal sacrifice is. … This is a unique and historic moment" for Mexico.<br /><br />López Obrador, a progressive populist, won the presidency in a landslide and will be sworn in on 1 December; Álvarez-Buylla is now preparing to leave the lab bench and assume her new role. She will be the president's primary science adviser and determine priorities for Conacyt's approximately $1.5 billion budget, which funds grants to scientists working in the public and private sectors and supports tens of thousands of Mexican students at home and abroad.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/mexico-s-new-science-minister-plant-biologist-who-opposes-transgenic-crops">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/mexico-s-new-science-minister-plant-biologist-who-opposes-transgenic-crops</a><br /><br /></p>Cancer burden rises to 18.1 million new cases and 9.6 million cancer deaths in 2018urn:md5:85c4390658156a58cf86e1a0bec570222018-09-13T07:35:00-04:002018-09-13T07:35:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaInternacionalMedicina <p><br />Source: MercoPres<br /><br /><br /><br />The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released on Wednesday the latest estimates on the global burden of cancer. The GLOBOCAN 2018 database, accessible online as part of the IARC Global Cancer Observatory, provides estimates of incidence and mortality in 185 countries for 36 types of cancer and for all cancer sites combined. An analysis of these results, published today in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, highlights the large geographical diversity in cancer occurrence and the variations in the magnitude and profile of the disease between and within world regions.<br /><br />The global cancer burden is estimated to have risen to 18.1 million new cases and 9.6 million deaths in 2018. One in 5 men and one in 6 women worldwide develop cancer during their lifetime, and one in 8 men and one in 11 women die from the disease. Worldwide, the total number of people who are alive within 5 years of a cancer diagnosis, called the 5-year prevalence, is estimated to be 43.8 million.<br /><br />The increasing cancer burden is due to several factors, including population growth and ageing as well as the changing prevalence of certain causes of cancer linked to social and economic development. This is particularly true in rapidly growing economies, where a shift is observed from cancers related to poverty and infections to cancers associated with lifestyles more typical of industrialized countries.<br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="http://en.mercopress.com/2018/09/13/cancer-burden-rises-to-18.1-million-new-cases-and-9.6-million-cancer-deaths-in-2018">http://en.mercopress.com/2018/09/13/cancer-burden-rises-to-18.1-million-new-cases-and-9.6-million-cancer-deaths-in-2018</a><br /><br /></p>Monsanto glyphosate weed killer could cost Bayer billions in damage lawsuitsurn:md5:4734200d44fadfa7f75a8c29052bd1c12018-08-25T14:27:00-04:002018-08-25T14:27:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaDerechos Humanos <p><br />Source: Mercopress<br /><br /><br /><br />United States agro-chemicals company Monsanto is facing a surge in lawsuits that may cost its new owners, Bayer, billions in damages. Monsanto manufactures glyphosate-based weed killers which some believe are carcinogenic. Last month it lost a US$ 289m court case that alleged its products Roundup and RangerPro had led to a Californian man's terminal cancer.<br /><br />Bayer said the number of outstanding cases had risen from 5,200 to 8,000. The German firm's shares have lost 11% of their value since it lost the case in a California court to groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson, who claimed Monsanto herbicides containing glyphosate, had caused his non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Bayer shares fell another 1.7% on Thursday.<br /><br />Chief executive Werner Baumann said that when it bought Monsanto, Bayer “could not foresee the scope of the current lawsuits.” The US$ 63bn deal was completed earlier this month.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="http://en.mercopress.com/2018/08/24/monsanto-glyphosate-weed-killer-could-cost-bayer-billions-in-damage-lawsuits">http://en.mercopress.com/2018/08/24/monsanto-glyphosate-weed-killer-could-cost-bayer-billions-in-damage-lawsuits</a><br /><br /></p>How gut microbes are joining the fight against cancerurn:md5:074d23fb30358a5a5a21fbbd3828d5e42018-05-29T07:29:00-04:002018-05-29T07:29:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaMedicina <p><br />Source: Nature<br /><br /><br /><br />Bertrand Routy earned a lamentable reputation with Parisian oncologists in 2015. A doctoral student at the nearby Gustave Roussy cancer centre, Routy had to go from hospital to hospital collecting stool samples from people who had undergone cancer treatments. The doctors were merciless. “They made fun of me,” Routy says. “My nickname was Mr Caca.”<br /><br />But the taunting stopped after Routy and his colleagues published evidence that certain gut bacteria seem to boost people’s response to treatment1. Now, those physicians are eager to analyse faecal samples from their patients in the hope of predicting who is likely to respond to anticancer drugs. “It was an eye-opener for a lot of people who couldn’t see the clinical relevance of gut microbes,” says Routy, who is now at the University of Montreal Health Centre in Canada.<br /><br />Cancer has been a late bloomer in the microbiome revolution that has surged through biomedicine. Over the past few decades, scientists have linked the gut’s composition of microbes to dozens of seemingly unrelated conditions — from depression to obesity. Cancer has some provocative connections as well: inflammation is a contributing factor to some tumours and a few types of cancer have infectious origins. But with the explosive growth of a new class of drug — cancer immunotherapies — scientists have been taking a closer look at how the gut microbiome might interact with treatment and how these interactions might be harnessed.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.</p>
<p>LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05208-8">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05208-8</a><br /></p>If you listen closely, the drumbeats of Amazonian tribes sound like human speechurn:md5:330a34211938924eab4079e65c936d252018-05-07T06:50:00-04:002018-05-07T06:50:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBrazilCultura <p><br />Source: Science Magazine<br /><br /><br /><br />Four years after Frank Seifart started documenting endangered dialects in Colombia, the guerillas came. In 2004, soldiers from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia swept past the Amazonian village where he did most of his fieldwork. The linguist reluctantly left for another village, south of the Peruvian border.<br /><br />When he got there, the chief was away. In the central roundhouse, an old man beat out a rhythm on two enormous drums: “A stranger has arrived. Come home.” And the chief did. It was the first time Seifart, now at the University of Cologne and the French National Center for Scientific Research in Lyon, had heard the traditional drums not just making music, but sending a message.<br /><br />Now, he and his colleagues have published the first in-depth study of how the drummers do it: Tiny variations in the time between beats match how words in the spoken language are vocalized. The finding, reported today in Royal Society Open Science, reveals how the group known as the Bora can create complex drummed messages. It may also help explain how the rest of us “get” what others are saying at loud cocktail parties, by detecting those tiny variations in time even when other sounds are drowned out.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/if-you-listen-closely-drumbeats-amazonian-tribes-sound-human-speech">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/if-you-listen-closely-drumbeats-amazonian-tribes-sound-human-speech</a><br /><br /><br /></p>Scientists downsize bold plan to make human genome from scratchurn:md5:0af861a1bf33b3f8ff62b597ce9f6b352018-05-01T17:39:00-04:002018-05-01T17:39:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaEstados Unidos <p><br />Source: Nature<br /><br /><br /><br />A bold plan to synthesize an entire human genome has been scaled back, aiming at a more technically attainable near-term goal. Instead of synthesizing all of the human genome’s 3 billion DNA base pairs, the project will now attempt to recode the genome to produce cells immune to viral infection.<br /><br />Organizers of Genome Project–Write (GP-write), a global public–private partnership that includes around 200 scientists, announced the priority shift at a meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, on 1 May.<br /><br />But even the downsized ambitions might be difficult to achieve soon, because the two-year-old effort still has no dedicated funding for what’s estimated to cost tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars and last a decade or more.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05043-x">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05043-x</a><br /><br /><br /></p>New Studies Link Cell Phone Radiation with Cancerurn:md5:2778ab33a383d84369f58d667f900f402018-04-04T13:09:00-04:002018-04-04T13:09:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaDigitalMedicinaTecnología <p><br />Source: Scientific American<br /><br /><br /><br />Does cell phone radiation cause cancer? New studies show a correlation in lab rats, but the evidence may not resolve ongoing debates over causality or whether any effects arise in people.<br /><br />The ionizing radiation given off by sources such as x-ray machines and the sun boosts cancer risk by shredding molecules in the body. But the non-ionizing radio-frequency (RF) radiation that cell phones and other wireless devices emit has just one known biological effect: an ability to heat tissue by exciting its molecules.<br /><br />Still, evidence advanced by the studies shows prolonged exposure to even very low levels of RF radiation, perhaps by mechanisms other than heating that remain unknown, makes rats uniquely prone to a rare tumor called a schwannoma, which affects a type of neuron (or nerve cell) called a Schwann cell.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-studies-link-cell-phone-radiation-with-cancer/">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-studies-link-cell-phone-radiation-with-cancer/</a><br /><br /></p>How human embryonic stem cells sparked a revolutionurn:md5:74dee3f861026f670b7652f6ca814df32018-03-21T06:24:00-04:002018-03-21T06:24:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaHistoria de la cienicaHistoria de la medicinaMedicina <p><br />Source: Nature<br /><br /><br /><br />Dieter Egli was just about to start graduate school in 1998 when researchers first worked out how to derive human embryonic stem cells. In the two decades since, the prolific cells have been a fixture of his career. The biologist, now at Columbia University in New York City, has used them to explore how DNA from adult cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic state, and to tackle questions about the development and treatment of diabetes. He has even helped to develop an entirely new form of human embryonic stem cell that could simplify studies on what different human genes do1.<br /><br />His wide-ranging research established him as a leader in embryonic stem-cell biology, a field challenged by restricted funding and an enthusiasm for competing technologies that don’t carry the same ethical baggage. Still, many say that human embryonic stem cells are now more relevant than ever. “I am very excited about embryonic stem cells,” says Egli. “They will lead to unprecedented discoveries that will transform life. I have no doubt about it.”<br /><br />Embryonic stem (ES) cells provide unparallelled information on early development. Like astronomers looking back to the Big Bang for fundamental insight about the Universe, biologists rake over the molecules inside these remarkable entities for clues as to how a single original cell turns into trillions, with a dizzying array of forms and functions. Scientists have learnt how to turn the cells into dozens of mature cell types representing various tissues and organs in the body. These are used to test drugs, to model disease and, increasingly, as therapies injected into the body. Starting with an attempt to repair spinal-cord injuries in 2010, there have been more than a dozen clinical trials of cells created from ES cells — to treat Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, among other conditions. Early results suggest that some approaches are working: a long-awaited report this week shows improved vision in two people with age-related macular degeneration, a disease that destroys the sharpness of vision2.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03268-4">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03268-4</a><br /><br /><br /></p>Genes of ‘extinct’ Caribbean islanders found in living peopleurn:md5:29b944556730e97b14ddbaf7e8fcfd9c2018-03-07T06:56:00-04:002018-03-07T06:56:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaCaribePuerto Rico ciencia <p><br />Source: Science Magazine<br /><br /><br />Jorge Estevez grew up in the Dominican Republic and New York City hearing stories about his native Caribbean ancestors from his mother and grandmother. But when he told his teachers that he is Taino, an indigenous Caribbean, they said that was impossible. “According to Spanish accounts, we went extinct 30 years after [European] contact,” says Estevez, an expert on Taino cultures at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, who is based in New York City.<br /><br />Many scientists and historians continue to believe the Taino were wiped out by disease, slavery, and other brutal consequences of European colonization without passing down any genes to people in the Caribbean today. But a new genetic study of a 1000-year-old skeleton from the Bahamas shows that at least one modern Caribbean population is related to the region’s precontact indigenous people, offering direct molecular evidence against the idea of Taino “extinction.”<br /><br />“These indigenous communities were written out of history,” says Jada Benn Torres, a genetic anthropologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who studies the Caribbean’s population history and has worked with native groups on several islands. “They are adamant about their continuous existence, that they’ve always been [on these islands],” she says. “So to see it reflected in the ancient DNA, it’s great.”<br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/genes-extinct-caribbean-islanders-found-living-people">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/genes-extinct-caribbean-islanders-found-living-people</a><br /><br /></p>Genes of ‘extinct’ Caribbean islanders found in living peopleurn:md5:d92283b65547cff0b36f6e22d838ada12018-02-22T07:10:00-04:002018-02-22T07:10:00-04:00cguajonGenéticaBiologiaCaribeEvolución <p><br />Source: Science Magazine<br /><br /><br /><br />Jorge Estevez grew up in the Dominican Republic and New York City hearing stories about his native Caribbean ancestors from his mother and grandmother. But when he told his teachers that he is Taino, an indigenous Caribbean, they said that was impossible. “According to Spanish accounts, we went extinct 30 years after [European] contact,” says Estevez, an expert on Taino cultures at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, who is based in New York City.<br /><br />Many scientists and historians continue to believe the Taino were wiped out by disease, slavery, and other brutal consequences of European colonization without passing down any genes to people in the Caribbean today. But a new genetic study of a 1000-year-old skeleton from the Bahamas shows that at least one modern Caribbean population is related to the region’s precontact indigenous people, offering direct molecular evidence against the idea of Taino “extinction.”<br /><br />“These indigenous communities were written out of history,” says Jada Benn Torres, a genetic anthropologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who studies the Caribbean’s population history and has worked with native groups on several islands. “They are adamant about their continuous existence, that they’ve always been [on these islands],” she says. “So to see it reflected in the ancient DNA, it’s great.”<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cont'd.<br /><br />LINK:<br /><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/genes-extinct-caribbean-islanders-found-living-people">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/genes-extinct-caribbean-islanders-found-living-people</a><br /><br /></p>