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Commentary on human genetics and evolution, direct-to-consumer genetic testing, and the personal genomics industry.
Daniel MacArthur
I write about the genetic and evolutionary basis of human variation, and the companies trying to sell you information about your genome.
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August 27, 2009
Category: commercial genetic testing
Peter Aldhous reports in New Scientist on systematic errors affecting the display of his own genetic data provided by personal genomics company deCODEme. While the errors themselves are fairly benign, there's an important lesson here for consumers of personal genomics data: engage with your data and question it until it makes sense.
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 7:45 AM • 5 Comments •
August 26, 2009
Category: next-generation sequencing
Complete Genomics, the company that promises complete human genome sequences for $5,000, has finally received the funding it needed to construct its first commercial facility in Silicon Valley. I talked to the company's CEO and one of its directors about the company's goals over the next 18 months.
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 8:00 AM • 4 Comments •
August 21, 2009
Category: big genetics
Is universal health care a prerequisite for understanding the genetic basis of disease?
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 1:30 PM • 6 Comments •
August 19, 2009
Category: personal utility
Dan Vorhaus has a great post in Genomics Law Report outlining recommendations made by a recent NIH-CDC workshop on the scientific foundations of personal genomics. The workshop included key stake-holders from academia, policy advisory groups and the personal genomics...
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 6:20 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: big genetics
Over at Gene Expression, p-ter has a post up defending the "big genetics" approach, noting that large-scale hypothesis-free genetics studies have consistently yielded important results for follow-up detailed fine-scale studies.It's a sound argument. I've argued in the past that many...
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 6:00 AM • 8 Comments •
Category: genetic literature
A colleague just pointed me to The Human Genre Project, a growing collection of short writing (poems, short stories) assembled into the set of human chromosomesThe quality is uneven, but some are genuinely moving, some are cute, and others convey...
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 5:15 AM • 0 Comments •
August 16, 2009
Category: evolution
A useful reminder for evolutionary biologists and science journalists, posted to the Evoldir list by Joel Parker:I have noticed many evolutionary biologists making an embarrassing mistake of falsely attributing the first use of the tree analogy to Darwin. This has occurred...
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 7:10 AM • 8 Comments •
August 14, 2009
Category: personal genomics
The Public Health Genomics Foundation's Caroline Wright reviews a recent paper exploring the changes personal genomics customers are likely to experience in their risk predictions as genetic research advances.
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 9:45 AM • 3 Comments •
August 13, 2009
Links to handy introductions to the complex, fast-moving world of next-generation sequencing.
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 9:30 AM • 5 Comments •
August 12, 2009
Category: personal genomics
Personal genomics company 23andMe has given away free genome scan kits to 4,500 participants at the Senior Games, in an effort to "find the genetic factors for healthy aging".
Posted by Daniel MacArthur at 3:50 PM • 12 Comments •
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