dgmacarthur
Posts by this author
December 17, 2008
David Ewing Duncan has a piece in Portfolio.com about Complete Genomics, a DNA sequencing company that launched back in October promising to offer whole-genome sequencing for $5000 by mid-2009.
Complete Genomics is based on some allegedly powerful new technology (here's a cartoon summary) developed…
December 16, 2008
From a recent paper in Nature Reviews Microbiology, it's probiogenomics!
The human body is colonized by an enormous population of bacteria (microbiota) that provides the host with coding capacity and metabolic activities. Among the human gut microbiota are health-promoting indigenous species (…
December 15, 2008
Willer et al. (2008). Six new loci associated with body mass index highlight a neuronal influence on body weight regulation Nature Genetics DOI: 10.1038/ng.287
Thorleifsson et al. (2008). Genome-wide association yields new sequence variants at seven loci that associate with measures of obesity…
December 12, 2008
There's a new paper in the American Journal of Human Genetics following on from the paper on the genetics of metabolic traits that I posted on earlier in the week. This study explicitly focuses on the population structure of the Finns, and includes these maps showing the correlation between…
December 11, 2008
An article in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine takes a look at the sharing of genetic risk factors between type 1 diabetes and celiac disease, two reasonably common auto-immune disorders (affecting ~0.4 and ~0.1%, respectively, of individuals of northern European origin).…
December 10, 2008
Pharmacogenomics Reporter has a fascinating article (subscription only, I think) on the impact of individual gene patents granted by the US patenting system on the future of personal genomics. Essentially, the issue for companies conducting genome-wide analysis (including SNP chips or whole-genome…
December 10, 2008
I posted last week on a paper purporting to identify a genetic variant influencing the placebo response. The main message of my post was that given the terrible history of small candidate gene association studies, a paper describing an association with a sample size of just 25 individuals should be…
December 9, 2008
A commentary in Nature by a group of psychologists, ethicists and neuroscientists has a controversial message:
Based on our considerations, we call for a presumption that mentally competent adults should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs. [their emphasis]
The authors call for a…
December 8, 2008
A few days ago I posted a picture depicting the genetic ancestry of African-Americans modelled as a linear combination of European and Nigerian genetic clusters (reproduced below). Dienekes has some thoughtful comments on the same picture.
Meanwhile, Razib comments on a post from Ed Yong…
December 8, 2008
Nature Genetics has just released six advance online manuscripts on the genetic architecture of complex metabolic traits. The amount of data in the manuscripts is overwhelming, so this post is really just a first impression; I suspect I'll have more to say once I've had time to dig into the juicy…
December 8, 2008
In my previous post on Finnish population clustering I should have emphasised that the map was constructed only from individuals who had both parents from the same geographic/linguistic region; this obviously provides a lot more power to detect a correlation.
The close match between genetic and…
December 8, 2008
Personal genomics company 23andMe is now offering a discount of $200 for customers who buy three or more kits before December 31st.
In a press release the company explains the reasoning behind the price cut:
By offering this discount, 23andMe hopes to encourage families, in particular, to explore…
December 8, 2008
Here's a figure from a brand new paper on the genetics of metabolic traits in a large Finnish cohort (which I'll be posting about in more detail shortly):
On the left is a map of the counties the samples were collected from, colour-coded by geographical/linguistic group; on the right is the genetic…
December 8, 2008
Think Gene's Andrew Yates has posted generic responses for medical professionals to use when dealing with patients who come armed with their results from 23andMe or Navigenics.
They're probably quite useful little tools for busy doctors without the time to brush up on the field of personal genomics…
December 8, 2008
I was planning to write a long article on this recent paper in PLoS Genetics, but p-ter at Gene Expression and G at Popgen ramblings have both covered the central message very well.
So if you haven't read those articles, already, go and do so now - when you come back, I want to talk about the…
December 6, 2008
I'm in the middle of a longer post on a recent paper on the effects of genetics on gene expression differences in African-Americans, which has also been well-covered by p-ter at Gene Expression. I wanted to post this section separately to avoid detracting from the issues in that post.
This figure…
December 4, 2008
David Dooling from PolITiGenomics has put together a handy little table for genomics nerds like me: statistics on the output of the various iterations of the three major competing second-generation DNA sequencing platforms (Roche's 454, Illumina's Solexa/Genome Analyzer and ABI's SOLiD).
It's a…
December 3, 2008
New Scientist trumpets the discovery of "the first placebo gene". The study in question is here.
I usually don't comment on this type of study, but this time the hype is just too much for me: New Scientist describes the study as "a milestone in the quest to understand" the placebo effect; an…
December 3, 2008
Chris over at A Free Man has done a great job putting together the latest issue of genetics blog carnival Mendel's Garden - check it out.
December 2, 2008
Reposted with a new title and minor corrections.
A sorry saga in Australian commercial genetics has apparently drawn to a close - just as another one looks set to begin.
Let's start from the beginning. Back in 2003, Australian biotech Genetic Technologies bought acquired the rights to a patent on…
November 30, 2008
Disclaimer: I was one of the authors on a 2003 study reporting a link between ACTN3 and athletic performance, but I have no financial interest in ACTN3 gene testing. The opinions expressed in this post are purely my own.
An article in the NY Times yesterday describes the launch of the grandiosely…
November 20, 2008
At Gene Expression, p-ter points to two studies in this week's New England Journal of Medicine examining the predictive value of known genetic markers for type 2 diabetes.
Both studies find the additional predictive power of the genetic markers beyond traditional predictors (like age, sex, family…
November 20, 2008
Pharmacogenomics Reporter (subscription required) describes an intriguing twist in the ongoing struggle between the nascent personal genomics industry and regulatory bodies: apparently the FDA is exploring the possibility of collaborating with consumer genomics providers to track adverse drug…
November 19, 2008
A Nature News article describes the growing availability of technology that allows the screening of human embryos for hundreds of different genetic disorders prior to implantation.
The technology is based on the same type of chips used by personal genomics companies like 23andMe, but the chips…
November 18, 2008
A Nature News article discusses the ongoing 1000 Genomes Project, an international effort planning to sequence 1,200-1,500 human genomes. The discussion springs from project co-chair David Altshuler's update at last week's American Society of Human Genetics meeting on the progress of the project (…
November 15, 2008
Blaine Bettinger at the Genetic Genealogist has an extensive and thoughtful critique of the American Society of Human Genetics' recently released statement on genetic ancestry testing (pdf). (You can read about the Society's statement at GenomeWeb News and Science Now; 23andMe also comments from…
November 14, 2008
Last week I posted on the publication of three papers in Nature describing whole-genome sequencing using next-generation technology: one African genome, one Asian genome, and two genomes from a female cancer patient (one from her cancer cells and one from healthy skin tissue). At the end of that…
November 11, 2008
Reports in Australian papers the Age and the Brisbane Times note the impending arrival of a newcomer to the personal genomics scene: Lumigenix, a home-grown offering cooked up by Sydney entrepreneur Romain Bonjean.
The new arrival will face several major obstacles to establishing itself in the…
November 10, 2008
Note: I'm introducing Do It Yourself as a new and hopefully semi-regular section on Genetic Future. The aim is to provide readers with instructions on how to access online resources for sequence analysis - an activity traditionally restricted to researchers, but one that will no doubt become more…
November 7, 2008
deCODE CEO Kari Stefansson on the recent award of Time magazine's "Invention of the Year" to personal genomics competitor 23andMe:
Despite the fact that we launched our test first - so we basically invented this, and also 23andMe is using a substantial number of sequence variants that we discovered…