Predicting Our longevity

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Predicting Our longevity

Can our telomeres tell us how long our natural lives will be? If so, at what point in our lives will they give the best estimate? These are some of the questions scientists are trying to answer with their animal studies. Through research, Professor Pat Monaghan says that telomere length can best predict our natural life span at a very young age. Let’s say this phenomenon was true in humans. In fifty years, do you think it could be a possibility that genetic testing could predict your life span? Do you think that if this kind of test was available, you would make your young child be tested? Why or why not? What kind of issues could this raise?

Think critically: when should the line be drawn on unnecessary genetic testing? If one of the goals of sequencing the genome was to provide better treatment in the clinical world, is our genetic knowledge and testing ability exceeding or going to exceed our clinical need?

Watch the video clip and read the associated article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16479649

Could Heart Health be related to Gender?

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Could Heart Health be related to Gender?

Two out of every three heart disease patients is male. A new study in the Lancet says that the Y chromosome may hold the key to understanding why men are more frequently plagued by heart disease. There is a cluster of genes that can be one of two variants on the Y chromosome, each referred to as a “haplogroup.” One of these groups causes a 50% increased risk of heart disease compared to the other one, independent of other factors. This may be why some of us know family members or friends that smoked and ignored their cholesterol did not contract heart disease.

The author suggests that a genetic screening test will be developed for this Y chromosome gene cluster, however more studies need to be done to prove the connection between this gene cluster and the increased risk of heart disease. Do you think a genetic screening test will be developed? How would this be similar to BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic screening? How will it be different? What effect will this have on clinicians and their treatment decisions?

Aricle: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/health/research/heart-disease-risk-may-be-tied-to-y-chromosome.html?_r=2

(Thank your fellow classmate for this article!) 

The “Sleep-duration” Gene

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The “Sleep-duration” Gene

Dr. Maggie Pearce explains the discovery and promise of a recent journal article by Allebrandt et al. According to Allebrandt et al. and their research on the ABCC9 gene in Drosophila (fruit flies), this gene is related how much sleep we need per night. Although this is a very interesting discovery, how can we be sure that the SNP in the ABCC9 gene actually causes the 5% difference in sleep duration among people? Can Allebrandt et al. declare that ABCC9 really is the cause of difference in human sleep patterns, if their experiments were done in Drosophila or does this call for more experimentation and investigation? If you could design an experiment to test this gene’s impact on sleep duration, how would it be different that Allebrandt et al.?

Dr. Pearce’s Article: http://www.thetech.org/genetics/news.php?id=149

In another article by the BBC, expert Neil Stanley said that there are many genes associated to sleep patterns. He also said, "It's interesting to know about these genes, but in a way our genes are an irrelevance unless you were actually to obey them - but none of us do that." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15999489)

 This seems to contradict the last paragraph of Dr. Maggie Pearce’s article that you read. Do you agree more with Dr. Pearce or Neil Stanley? Why?

Dogs are a Cure’s Best Friend

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Dogs are a Cure’s Best Friend

“Dogs, which have strong genetic similarities with humans, get many of the same types of cancers as people and have similar responses to cancer-fighting drugs.” Successful personalized treatment for our pets’ cancer may lead us to provide successful personalized treatment in humans. How would enrolling animal subjects enable faster response and treatment? (Think back to the Feero et al. article “Genomics, Health Care, and Society,” and its section about Consent and Confidentiality.) If your dog were diagnosed with cancer, would you enroll him/her in a cancer treatment trial? Do you think this could be an important part of the emerging era of personalized medicine that the Human Genome Project had hoped to achieve?

Article and embedded video: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203315804577207252135374064.html?mod=rss_Health

(Thank you to your fellow classmate for this article!)