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POV - In the Family . A Brave New World of Genetics Michele Kort: Hello, I'm Michele Kort, senior editor of Ms. Magazine, and I'm talking with Joanna Rudnick, the filmmaker and main character of the documentary In the Family. The film follows what happens when Joanna tested positive for the breast cancer gene at age 27. We're also joined by New York Times correspondent Amy Harmon, who won a Pulitzer Prize on her series of articles on the DNA age, which explores the impact of genetic technology on American life. Welcome to both of you. Joanna Rudnick: Thank you. Amy Harmon: Thank you for having us. Kort: Joanna, you've lived with the knowledge that you have the BRCA mutation that increases your risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. Rudnick: The most profound change that happened during the filmmaking process is that I became comfortable with talking about having this information and talking about what it means for me to have a genetic mutation. Harmon: Right, and that was a struggle for Deb too. Rudnick: Right. Kort: Yes.

Sex & Parenting Genes Discovered in Mice | Brain Genes, Sex Hormones & Gender Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, but how did they get there? Our gender differences might be a function of how our brains react to hormones, a new study on mice suggests. The study showed that when different sex hormones were turned on or off genes in the brain, the mice showed different parenting behaviors. Though the research was performed in mice, these sex hormones show similar effects in mammals and many of the genes the scientists discovered are found in humans, the researchers say. It's possible that hormones are having an effect on brain genes in humans, too, though the behaviors controlled might be different. "Testosterone and estrogen control sexually dimorphic behaviors in vertebrate species, we've known that for a long time that they control behaviors at a very large-scale level," study researcher Nirao Shah, of the University of California, San Francisco, told LiveScience. Hormonal brain They found 16 genes that showed clear sex differences. Controlled behaviors

Identical Twins' Genes Are Not Identical Identical twins are identical, right? After all, they derive from just one fertilized egg, which contains one set of genetic instructions, or genome, formed from combining the chromosomes of mother and father. But experience shows that identical twins are rarely completely the same. Geneticist Carl Bruder of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and his colleagues closely compared the genomes of 19 sets of adult identical twins. Normally people carry two copies of every gene, one inherited from each parent. Scientists have long used twins to study the roles of nature and nurture in human genetics and how each affects disease, behavior, and conditions, such as obesity. For example, one twin in Bruder's study was missing some genes on particular chromosomes that indicated a risk of leukemia, which he indeed suffered. Bruder therefore believes that the differences in identical twins can be used to identify specific genetic regions that coincide with specific diseases.

US researchers find evidence that homosexuality linked to genetics | World news Compared to straight men, gay men are more likely to be left-handed, to be the younger siblings of older brothers, and to have hair that whorls in a counterclockwise direction. US researchers are finding common biological traits among gay men, feeding a growing consensus that sexual orientation is an inborn combination of genetic and environmental factors that largely decide a person's sexual attractions before they are born. Such findings - including a highly anticipated study this winter - would further inform the debate over whether homosexuality is innate or a choice, an undercurrent of California's recent Proposition 8 campaign in which television commercials warned that "schools would begin teaching second-graders that boys could marry boys", suggesting homosexuality would then spread. Christian groups such as Exodus International argue "that homosexuals who desire to change can do so". One explanation is that women's sexual behaviour is driven more by relationships.

More doctors look to genetic testing to select best antidepressant for patients Dr. David H. Haase orders genetic tests on patients for clues about what depression medications will work best. He’s at the vanguard of a new and challenging phase for personalized medicine — the psychiatric realm. The Clarksville, Tenn., family practitioner uses these tests in an attempt to avoid trial-and-error prescribing, a frustrating ordeal for patients as they go through Paxil, Zoloft or Effexor in search of the right medication. While personalized medicine for cancer and heart patients is quickly becoming an accepted standard of care, its use in psychiatry remains an area of debate. The test Haase uses at his private practice came on the market last year. “This test, I’m certain, has prevented in my practice at least one psychiatric hospitalization already,” said Haase, medical director of the MaxWell Clinic. Dr. “The problem is that in psychiatry disorders, you don’t have simple genetics,” Mirnics said. “We are not there yet, not in psychiatry,” Mirnics said. CDC group hits tests

Are your genes telling you to vote? Today, hundreds of thousands of Americans in 10 states will turn out to vote in the so-called “Super Tuesday” elections for the US Republican primary contest. But what brings them to the polls? Is it decision-making or DNA? A small group of political scientists are trying to find out. The field of “genopolitics” looks at how political passions and persuasions may be dictated by our DNA. It’s not uncommon for parents and children to share political beliefs. Charney and English argue that genetic research is undergoing a dramatic shift, replacing the idea that specific genes are responsible for specific behaviors and outcomes with the concept of a complex network of hundreds, even thousands of genes all working together. Don’t expect a definitive answer soon.

World's first handmade cloned transgenic sheep born in China Chinese scientists from BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, together with the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Shihezi University, Xinjiang province, made a significant breakthrough in animal cloning. The world's first transgenic sheep produced with a simplified technique, handmade cloning, was successfully born at 12:16pm, March 26, 2012, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. "The transgenic sheep is named 'Peng Peng' (after the identical given names of the two cloners), his birth weight was 5.74 kg." said excitedly Dr. The project has been launched more than two years ago. The genetic modification may result in improved meat quality by increasing the unsaturated fatty acid content. Since HMC was introduced in 2001, offspring of several important species including cattle, pig, goat and water buffalo have been produced by using this technique. BGI Ark Biotechnology Co., LTD.

Polar Bears Did Not Descend From Brown Bears, DNA Study Indicates Steve Amstrup/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, via Associated Press Polar bears on pack ice in the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska. Scientists say polar bears are not descended from brown bears. Instead, according to a research team that looked at DNA samples from the two species and from black bears, the brown bear and polar bear ancestral lines have a common ancestor and split about 600,000 years ago. The report, published online on Thursday in the journal Science, is the latest attempt to understand the surprisingly murky origins of one of the most familiar animals on earth, and a potent environmental symbol because it is losing the sea ice it depends on to a warming climate. The report comes to no conclusion about how sensitive the bears are to the current loss of the sea ice that they live on, and the evolutionary tale it presents can be read in different ways. What they found, Dr. Dr. For animals so well known, polar bears have been something of a puzzle in terms of their origins.

Genetic test could pave the way for breast cancer 'magic bullets' - Science - News For the first time, scientists have been able to tease apart differences in the DNA of breast cancer patients that go far beyond the results of classical medical science, based on the tradition of analysing tumour tissue under a microscope. Researchers have used advances in genetics to determine 10 subtypes of breast cancer, each of which has a unique genetic fingerprint that could in the future determine a patient's tailor-made treatment – or cure. At present, breast cancers are classified according to the presence or absence of a few "markers" or proteins found on the surface of tumour cells. In future, doctors will classify breast cancers based on the presence, absence or even activity of the smallest bits of DNA code. The power of the latest study, published in the journal Nature, resides in the ability to retrospectively analyse some 2,000 frozen samples of breast-tumour tissue collected from women in Britain and Canada between five and 10 years ago. "I want to be very cautious here.

Genetic variant increases risk of common type stroke A genetic variant that increases the risk of a common type of stroke has been identified by scientists in a study funded by the Wellcome Trust and published online in Nature Genetics. This is one of the few genetic variants to date to be associated with the risk of stroke, and the discovery opens up new possibilities for treatment. Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide (causing more than one in ten of all deaths and more than six million deaths annually, according to the World Health Organization) and is a major cause of chronic disability in high-income countries. As the world's populations age, the impact of stroke on wellbeing is likely to increase further. Several different mechanisms underlie strokes. The researchers discovered an alteration in a gene called HDAC9 that affects a person's risk of large artery ischaemic stroke. "Interestingly, there are already drugs available which inhibit the HDAC9 protein. Source: Wellcome Trust

Mummy's prostate cancer points to genetic cause - Technology & Science Cancer in ancient times would appear to be linked to genetics, since the environment then was free of industrial pollutants. (National Museum of Archeology/Associated Press) An Egyptian professor says the discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment. The genetics versus environment question is key to understanding cancer. American University in Cairo professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said Sunday the mummy was of a man who died in his 40s. "These radiologic findings in a wrapped mummy, to the best of our knowledge, have never previously been documented, and could be one of the oldest evidence of this disease, as well as being the cause of death," Ikram and her co-authors concluded in the International Journal of Paleopathology. Ikram said this was the second-oldest known case of prostate cancer.

Geneticist claims to have found 'God gene' in humans LONDON — An American molecular geneticist has concluded after comparing more than 2,000 DNA samples that a person’s capacity to believe in God is linked to brain chemicals. His findings have been criticized by leading clerics, who challenge the existence of a “God gene” and say the research undermines a fundamental tenet of faith — that spiritual enlightenment is achieved through divine transformation rather than the brain’s electrical impulses. Dean Hamer, the director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, asked volunteers 226 questions in order to determine how spiritually connected they felt to the universe. The higher their score, the greater the person’s ability to believe in a greater spiritual force and, Mr. Studies on twins showed that those with this gene, a vesicular monoamine transporter that regulates the flow of mood-altering chemicals in the brain, were more likely to develop a spiritual belief. Mr. The Rev. The Rev. Mr.

DNA alternative created by scientists | Science DNA and RNA have been turned into alternative genetic polymers called XNAs by researchers in Cambridge. Photograph: Mopic/Alamy Scientists have created artificial genetic material that can store information and evolve over generations in a similar way to DNA – a feat expected to drive research in medicine and biotechnology, and shed light on how molecules first replicated and assembled into life billions of years ago. Ultimately, the creation of alternatives to DNA could enable scientists to make novel forms of life in the laboratory. Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in Cambridge, developed chemical procedures to turn DNA and RNA, the molecular blueprints for all known life, into six alternative genetic polymers called XNAs. The process swaps the deoxyribose and ribose (the "d" and "r" in DNA and RNA) for other molecules. "There is nothing Goldilocks about DNA and RNA," Holliger told Science.