Blue-collar workers, particularly carpenters and construction workers, have a significantly increased risk for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) compared with white-collar workers, new research shows. Investigators found manual laborers had a twofold increased risk for the fatal neurodegenerative disease, possibly because…
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Altering a mosquito's gut genes shows promise to curb malaria
Altering a mosquito's gut genes to make them spread antimalarial genes to the next generation of their species shows promise as an approach to curb malaria, suggests a preliminary study published today in eLife. The study is the latest in…
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Wrong Daughter Told She Lacks Melanoma Mutation, Then Gets It
Parents who filed a multiparty claim after their daughters’ genetic cancer test results were mistakenly mixed up will have their day in court, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. In 1999, Michael and Susan Lonsway brought their…
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Emerging Gene Therapy Offers Window Into Potential Costs of New Class of Therapies
(Reuters Health) – The budget impact to Medicaid of gene therapy to treat severe sickle cell disease offers a window on the potential costs of this emerging class of million-dollar treatments, and requires payers to think about how to ensure…
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Mitochondrial DNA Variant Increases Gallstone Risk
A mitochondrial DNA variant may increase the risk of gallstone disease more than fourfold, according to investigators. Mitochondrial DNA 827A>G disrupts mitochondrial function and leads to abnormal cholesterol transport, which increases gallstone development, reported Dayan Sun, of Fudan University, Shanghai,…
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Researchers Approach Publishers About Errors in 31 Papers
Retraction Watch readers may recall the name Jennifer Byrne, whose work as a scientific sleuth we first wrote about four years ago, and have followed ever since. In a new paper in Scientometrics , Byrne, of New South Wales Health Pathology and the University of…
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Coronavirus new variant: Genomics researcher answers key questions
A new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, is thought to be driving increased transmission of the disease in parts of the UK. The government has placed some regions including London under new, stricter coronavirus restrictions, known as…
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New genetic analysis method could advance personal genomics
Geneticists could identify the causes of disorders that currently go undiagnosed if standard practices for collecting individual genetic information were expanded to capture more variants that researchers can now decipher, concludes new Johns Hopkins University research. The laboratory of Johns…
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Metabolomics meets genomics to improve patient diagnosis
A patient and family walk into a doctor’s office. They hope that the latest tests will reveal what is causing the patient’s illness and end the diagnostic odyssey they have been going through for years. Having an accurate diagnosis also…
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Genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics shed light on autoimmune thyroid disease
Scientists at deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, and their collaborators from the Icelandic healthcare system, University of Iceland and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, have published a study in Nature comparing over 30,000 patients with autoimmune thyroid disease from…
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