Eye on DNA Headlines for 27 September 2007

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted September 27, 2007 in DNA Inventions and Gadgets, Eye on DNA Headlines

• The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Ferocious Beauty: Genome is running at the Premiere Dance Theatre in Toronto, Canada from September 27-29. From National Post:

  As she pondered the implications of the unraveling of the human genome, Lerman realized what a different future her daughter would be facing, a future potentially fraught with issues and difficult choices she herself had never had to confront.

  Read more about this performance in my previous post - Dancing to the Genome.

• The drug companies listened to me after all.* The International Serious Adverse Events Consortium, made-up of seven pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions, has launched two studies to examine genetic markers which indicate a person’s risk of drug-related side effects. Members of the Consortium will combine their data, including DNA, to study serious adverse events (SAEs). Information from the SNP Consortium and Hap Map Project will also be utilized. (Press release)
• Next month, Australian physicians will be handed a copy of Genetics in Family Medicine: The Australian Handbook for General Practitioners produced by the Genetics Education in Medicine Consortium. The handbook will also be available online at http://www.gpgenetics.edu.au (site still under construction at the time of writing).
• The San Diego Union Tribune interviews Dr. James Watson. FYI, don’t ask to photograph Dr. Watson. He doesn’t like it!
• Point-of-care DNA testing is coming closer to reality. NEC has developed DNA testing equipment the size of a briefcase that they say can analyze crime scene DNA in 25 minutes. NEC claims that it’s the world’s first portable all-in-one DNA analysis system that goes from extraction to analysis. Earlier this week, scientists in Singapore unveiled a prototype chip that can do something similar; the handheld device can detect viral DNA from throat swabs. (HT: Gizmodo)

*I’m just joking. I don’t believe for a second anybody listens to me. Not even my five-year-old.

Tags: genetics, genes, dna, james watson, nec

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6 Comments »

Comment by StevenMurphy MD

2007-09-28 01:38:58

Great,
Now all the Aussie physicians will have to do is read the book……
-Steve
http://www.thegenesherpa.blogspot.com

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Comment by Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD

2007-10-01 13:51:43

Steve, I hope you’re not implying that they might not! Surely you don’t think so little of your fellow physicians?

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Comment by StevenMurphy MD

2007-10-01 13:55:05

No of course not. What I am acutely aware of is how very busy a GP in a national healthcare system is. If this were the US where the book was distributed to docs in private practice, then I am certain that very few would have the time to read it. Not that they wouldn’t want to, but simply that they do not have the time to.
-Steve
http://www.thegenesherpa.blogspot.com

(Comments wont nest below this level)

Comment by Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD

2007-10-01 14:01:56

Could be good bathroom reading.

 

Reply here

 

 

 

Comment by KathyF

2007-09-29 20:08:40

Genetics for family medicine…this reminds me, when I went to a family practice doc, worried because I’d just discovered my mom had Huntington’s Disease, she told me not to worry, that sometimes these things skip generations.

That just made me cry harder, that she had no idea even how it transmitted! Even though I’d just heard of HD a few days earlier, I knew there was no way it could “skip a generation”.

So yeah, I think a lot of them could use such a book.

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Comment by Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD

2007-10-01 13:50:59

Kathy, Your story is infuriating and frightening!!

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