I didn’t think much about placentas until I had one and part of it dislodged halfway through a 4-mile run. Happily it…
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post What’s in a Placenta? A Transcriptomic View
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post A New View of Diabetes?
It’s hard to change entrenched ideas in science. Protein is the genetic material. Genes are continuous and immobile. The genome consists of…
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post Blinded By Stem Cells
The small wavy shimmers and fuzzy areas in the 78-year-old’s eyes had grown slowly, leading to a diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration…
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post Saving GINA: Is Genetic Privacy Imperiled?
A bill that passed its first hurdle yesterday in Congress threatens to take away genetic privacy protections put in place with the…
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post Is Transgender Identity Inherited?
The recent return of the “which bathroom?” issue regarding transgender individuals’ use of public restrooms has made me think about how I’ve handled…
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post Rare Disease Day 2017: Talia’s Story
This year for Rare Disease Day – February 28th – DNA Science honors Cure CMT4J: Advancing Gene Therapy for Rare Diseases, run…
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post Defying Mendelian Genetics and “Embryo Engineering”
Mendel’s laws, like any laws in science, are wonderful because they make predictions possible. A woman and man both carry a recessive…
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post Pig People?
When Medscape asked me late last week to cover the making of early embryos that have cells from pigs and humans, I couldn’t…
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post 12 Alternative Facts of Human Genetics
I’ve always wanted to write about my favorite experiment in human genetics, but a news hook was elusive. Not any more! Thank…
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post A Necessary Retelling of the Smallpox Vaccine Story
A curious confluence of events unfolded Tuesday night. Just hours before President Obama uttered the powerful “science and reason matter” in his…
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post Gene Action Tracks an Autoimmune Disease: Systemic Sclerosis
Systemic sclerosis (Ssc) is a rare disease in which collagen gloms up internal organs and toughens the skin into an armor of…
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post Genetics in 2016: Breakthrough, Breakdown, and Bridge
I dislike end-of-year “best of” lists, especially the “breakthroughs” that imply scientific discoveries and medical advances emerge from out of nowhere. Often…