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Geneticist Ricki Lewis blogs from the cutting edge of genomics, including genetic testing, stem cells, gene therapy and more.

Ricki Lewis is a science writer with a PhD in genetics. The author of several textbooks and thousands of articles in scientific, medical, and consumer publications, Ricki's first narrative nonfiction book, "The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It," was published by St. Martin's Press in March 2012. In addition to writing, Ricki provides genetic counseling for parents-to-be at CareNet Medical Group in Schenectady, NY and teaches "Genethics" an online course for master's degree students at the Alden March Bioethics Institute of Albany Medical Center.
June 2013

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- Genetics Errors in Supreme Court Decision June 13, 2013
  Earlier today, my “in” box began to fill with info from everyone I’ve ever met letting me know that the Supreme Court had ruled on the Myriad case about patenting the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. I also received a dozen pitches from PR people offering me all manner of instant interviews with lawyers, doctors, bioethicists, and health care analysts.… […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD
- Two Intriguing Tumors: Fibroids and Teratomas June 13, 2013
  Genome sequencing studies can be boring. It’s not that there are too many of them, although that will surely happen, but sometimes they just don’t tell us anything new. That was the case when last week Medscape asked me to write up a paper in an upcoming New England Journal of Medicine report about sequencing the genomes of uterine fibroids.… Read the rest […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD
- Battling Batten Disease June 6, 2013
  Last week’s blog post was about a little girl who had a genetic disease that usually strikes adults. This week’s post is about a teen who has an “infantile” variety of a different neurological genetic disease. 8 GENES BEHIND BATTEN DISEASE Taylor King, of Charlotte, North Carolina, has Batten disease.… Read the rest […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD
- Juvenile Huntington’s Disease: The Cruel Mutation May 30, 2013
  Looking back, signs that Jane Mervar’s husband, Karl, had Huntington’s Disease (HD) started about when their youngest daughter, Karli, began to have trouble paying attention in school. Karl had become abusive, paranoid, and unemployable due to his drunken appearance. The little girl, born in September 1996, was hyperactive and had difficulty following direct […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD
- Toms River: A New Classic in Epidemiology Writing May 23, 2013
  This week Larry Lewis, PhD, contributes a book review. Dan Fagin, director of the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University, does a great job in “Toms River” of describing the environmental catastrophe in Toms River, NJ. The book frequently references Jonathan Harr’s, “A Civil Action,” which tells a similar story: over the co […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD
- A Little Girl With Giant Axons, a Deranged Cytoskeleton, and Someday Gene Therapy May 16, 2013
  “When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras.” So goes the mantra of first-year medical students. If a common disease is a horse and a rare disease a zebra, then giant axonal neuropathy (GAN), with only 50 or so recognized cases worldwide, is surely a unicorn.… Read the rest […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD
- Celebrating Gleevec – and Basic Research May 9, 2013
  When 23-year-old Glamour magazine editor Erin Zammett Ruddy went for a routine physical in November 2001, she expected reassurance that her healthy lifestyle had been keeping her well. After all, she felt great. What Erin received, a few days later, was a shock.… Read the rest […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD
- Confessions of a D Orbital May 2, 2013
  Organic chemistry has changed! Not the science, but the way it’s taught. SUNY Stony Brook, Fall semester, 1973. 500+ wannabe doctors pack into the lecture hall, squinting as a small figure up front slaps down overheads, scribbling CHNOPS atoms and various dots and dashes, changing the acetate sheets faster than any human brain can register them.… Read the re […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD
- DNA Day and World Malaria Day: The Sickle Cell/Malaria Link Revisited April 25, 2013
  Today is both DNA Day and World Malaria Day. As I was pondering how to connect the topics, e-mail arrived from my “son,” a medical student in Liberia. He had malaria, again, and this time it had gone to his brain.… Read the rest […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD
- DNA Day and 20 Years of Writing a Human Genetics Textbook April 18, 2013
  This month we celebrate the DNA anniversaries: unveiling of DNA’s structure in 1953, and the human genome sequence in 2003. From now until DNA Day, April 25, bloggers will be worshipping the human genome. Nature.com will offer podcasts (PastCasts) and last week, Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, spoke to reporters, summari […]
  Ricki Lewis, PhD

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