Eye on DNA Headlines for 30 April 2008

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted April 30, 2008 in Eye on DNA Headlines

• Scienceblogs Gene Expression hosts Gene Genie #30.
• Thank you to the Missouri State Genealogical Association (MoSGA) Messenger for sharing Eye on DNA with its readers!
• DNA inspires not just scientists but artists too. Check out Digital 3d Art created by a “quantum theoretician involved in studying life at a molecular particle level.”
• Are we in for another Myriad genetic test ad uproar? Identigene (more from Eye on DNA), sellers of over-the-counter paternity tests, have hired STG Media Corp to create TV, print, and radio ads that will “not only inform consumers that the product is out there, but that will also demonstrate that the product actually works.”
• A “major television network” (I can vouch for their authenticity) is looking for people to interview. Here’s what they sent me:

  For an upcoming series on genetic testing, a major television network would like to interview a person who has ordered an online gene test to assess their future risk of getting certain diseases. Twelve complaints have been filed with the california Dept of Health and the New York State Dept of Health has sent letters explaining the legal ramifications of testing New York residents without the proper clinical laboratory permit. Most of these complaints are anonymous. Would anyone speak on-camera to their issues and share their personal experience ordering one of these tests and getting the results? Please call 917 991 3689 or write to Theodora12@gmail.com.

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Geeky DNA T-Shirts from the San Francisco Exploratorium

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted April 29, 2008 in Geeky DNA T-shirts

For the 2007 National DNA Day, San Francisco’s Exploratorium Explainers mocked up some DNA t-shirts.

Seen any t-shirts for last week’s 2008 National DNA Day?

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What’s in your DNA? #28

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted April 27, 2008 in In Your DNA

The DNA Restaurant in Old Montreal, Quebec Canada isn’t really named after the DNA we like best.

Though the name may have you conjuring up medical reports and murder trials, DNA actually stands for Derek ‘n’ Alex, Derek being Dammann, and Alex being Alex Cruz, the suave maitre d’ and resident wine expert. (The Gazette)

Lee at Tokyo Times reports from Japan on a collection of coasters that tell people you’re not into downing alcoholic drinks in one gulp. One of the coasters says:

I can’t drink - it’s not in my DNA.

Danielle Parsons at Am I There Yet? is challenging herself to accomplish 101 things in 1001 days:

So no more someday (which, presumably, is the day that I’ll get there). I may not be able to radically overhaul of my life, and quit procrastinating on everything that I want to do (anyone who knows me well knows procrastination is embedded in my DNA) – but I am going to do 101 things in 1001 days.

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Happy DNA Day!

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted April 25, 2008 in DNA Fun

Be a nerd and celebrate National DNA Day with us!

DNA Diagnostics Center has two DNA Day eCards–Happy DNA Day Helix Flower and Do The Twist on DNA Day–in honor of the event. (HT: DNA Network member The DNA Testing Blog’s Top Ten Things to Do on DNA Day!)

The National Human Genome Research Institute has more activities planned for National DNA Day including a live online chatroom and DNA Day speaker presentations.

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Eye on DNA Headlines for 15 April 2008

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted April 15, 2008 in DNA Testing, Eye on DNA Headlines

• Please welcome The Skeptical Alchemist and Think Gene to The DNA Network. They are the Network’s 51st and 52nd members!
• Andrew Meyer of Buzzyeah has been going through his 23andMe results and was also featured in this week’s Newsweek article - May We Scan Your Genome?
• DNATraits is offering a discount on their Ashkenazi Jews Genetic Disease Package in celebration of Passover this month. (HT: Tracing the Tribe)
• DNA Direct* has partnered with Navigenics to offer their members further medical diagnostic tests for specific medical conditions.
• Tickets are now on sale for Xconomy Forum: Boston Life Sciences 2028 scheduled for April 29 from 6:00 - 8:30 pm at Harvard Medical School. Nobel Prize-winning MIT biologist Phil Sharp, Flagship Ventures managing partner and CEO Noubar Afeyan, and Raju Kucherlapati, scientific director, Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics, and professor of genetics and medicine, Harvard Medical School, will be leading the discussion.

*I work with DNA Direct as a genetic information specialist.

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Eye on DNA in Elements

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted April 14, 2008 in DNA Fun

Created using Spelling with Elements (via Geekdad)

(1 comment)

Eye on DNA Headlines for 11 April 2008

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted April 11, 2008 in Eye on DNA Headlines

• The MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) will be hosting DNA for Dollars: Featuring 23andMe, Kleiner Perkins, MDV, and more at Stanford Business School on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 6:00 pm.
• The DNA Network Custom Search Engine has been updated and now includes all 50 member sites.
• Congratulations to New York Times reporter Amy Harmon on her Pulitzer Prize for The DNA Age series of articles on “the impact of genetic technology on American life.”
• Congratulations also to TR Gregory at Genomicron on his one-year blogging anniversary!
• Lee Lofland, author of Police Procedure and Investigation, A Guide for Writers shares Things Writers Should Know about DNA. I just have on nitpicky point about the DNA fact that “identical twins have identical DNA”…erm, not quite .
• Health Content Advisors discusses the role of genetic counselors as healthcare intermediaries.

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Eye on DNA Headlines for 7 April 2008

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted April 7, 2008 in Eye on DNA Headlines

• Thanks to Alltop for adding Eye on DNA and The DNA Network to their science page!
• The DNA Network welcomes its 50th member - Aminopop!
• Greg Laden hosts the latest issue of Gene Genie #24.
• Check out the Science in Fiction Project where readers can get together to share the books they’ve read that incorporate science. For those specifically interested in biology, Peggy writes Biology in Science Fiction which is also a great resource.
• Schelly Talalay Dardashti has a new article in the Jerusalem Post - When oral history meets genetics. Don’t miss the sidebar - Screening for Jewish genetic diseases.
• For more on genetic genealogy, see this past weekend’s Baltimore Sun article - In genes and online, a path to ancestry.

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More Scientists Need Brain Enhancing Drugs

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted April 1, 2008 in DNA Fun, DNA in General

Daniel MacArthur at Genetic Future asks, “Why do genome-wide scans fail?” The answer may be inequalities among scientists’ intellectual abilities. To deal with such a disparity, some scientists are apparently indulging in brain enhancing drugs. The NIH has just announced three new initiatives to address the issue.

From the press release (complete press release below the fold):

While “doping” is now accepted as a problem among athletes, it is less widely known that so-celled “brain doping” has been affecting the competitive balance in scientific research as well. It is for this reason that NIH is collaborating with the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA), which has led the fight against doping in athletics, to create the World Anti Brain Doping Authority (WABDA).

I honestly don’t care if scientists are indulging in brain enhancing drugs as long as they get the job done. Maybe we aren’t at the $1,000 genome yet because not enough of them are doped up!

Update: April Fools!

Continue reading…

(6 comments)

What’s in your DNA? #27

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted March 30, 2008 in In Your DNA

Scott Adams of The Dilbert Blog on pain leveling when the less happy person transfers some of his/her pain to the more happy one:

…I overheard a kid bragging about something that was going well for him. The other kid reflexively called him a bragger and did a few other tricks to level the pain. I think this instinct is built into our DNA.

From Barack Obama’s speech on race:

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Kristina Chew at Autism Vox on her son Charlie’s autism:

I think that autism is genetic. When I consider some of the conditions or disorders (or whatever you might want to call them) in Jim’s and my own family history—-ADHD, OCD, anxiety, depression, various other things—-I have to say, Jim and I always figured that we’d have a child with “something,” though not necessarily with as severe of a condition as Charlie has.

Charlie and Kristina were also included in a recent Newsweek feature on autism - Mysteries and Complications.

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