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!) 

Personalized Genomic Medicine: Who to believe

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“Personalized Genomic Medicine: Who to believe”

Similar to one of our latest readings, , translating the knowledge of our genes into actual use in medicine is easier said than done. The article from class was aimed to teach doctors how to speak about genomics to patients. This new article is calling for a new system of personalized medicine. Do you think such a system is possible? Now that you are beginning to understand how environment, epigenetics, and variation create different outcomes from the same genes, how can the intricacies and details of each individuals genome ever be used to form a strict translation and used to inform patients on their health risks?

Is an X equals Y diagnoses ever really possible with so many confounding factors? And are physicians inept enough to be the ones making decisions based on genomes?

http://vectorblog.org/2012/01/seeking-clarity-genomics-sleuths-set-out-for-the-prize/

(Thank you to one of our past HS320 students for sending this blog in!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5JfOU2efJY