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July 26, 2004
Gene predicts agressive behavior. Bad monkey!
Republished from South Africa's Sunday Times of July 25, 2004:
The throw of the genetic dice helps to determine whether you seethe with rage or turn the other cheek, a study suggests.
Researchers have found evidence that some people inherit a genetic make-up that makes them more prone to aggression and violence.
However, the "bad behaviour gene" is only activated if people were neglected or abused as children, scientists say.
The findings add to growing evidence that the "nature versus nurture" debate is too simplistic.
Behaviour is actually influenced by a complex interaction between genes and environment, researchers say.
The research raises the possibility that babies could be screened for genetic mutations that increase the risk of excessive aggression later in life. Scientists may also develop drugs to reduce the risk of violent offending in adolescents and young adults.
Although the study was carried out in monkeys, its findings closely mirror previous research on genes and aggression in humans.
The team, led by Dr Steven Suomi of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland, looked at the links between aggressive behaviour, genes and upbringing in rhesus monkeys.
Between 5% and 10% of wild and captive male rhesus monkeys are extremely violent. They pick fights with the strongest males and turn play fights into bloodbaths.
Suomi split the monkeys into two groups.
Half were deprived of their mothers at birth and reared with their brothers and siblings for the first six months. The rest were reared naturally. The scientists then looked for a gene called 5HTT that has been linked to impulsive aggression.
The gene is involved in the way the brain handles the feel-good chemical messenger serotonin and comes in two varieties - a "short" mutation which leads to low serotonin levels, and a "long" variety leading to higher levels.
The animals that had the short "bad behaviour" version of the gene and who were separated from their mothers developed into ultra-violent monkeys, the researchers found.
However, the short version of the gene had no e ffect on the monkeys' behaviour if they were raised by their mothers.
"There is a buffering effect of good mothers," said Suomi. "It is the gene-environment inter action."
Monkeys with the longer version of the gene were placid, irrespective of whether they were separated from their mothers.
The findings highlight how good parenting can counteract the effects of bad genes.
It also helps to explain why some children grow into well- adjusted, happy and normal adults despite suffering the most appalling traumas.
Posted by canton at 07:01 PM
Sperm to star in Reality TV Show
As reported here on the Gene Expression blog, the TV execs who brought us some quality TV reality shows like "Big Brother" are bravely venturing where no reality TV show has gone before: into a living body.
The premise of Make Me a Mum is this: 1,000 men, or if you prefer, the sperm of 1,000 men, will be competing with one another for the opportunity to fertilize a single lucky woman's egg. Were the fertilization to happen the old fashioned way, I think Brighter Pictures (UK) could anticipate great ratings during the climax of the series, at least. But the way this show is being pitched, fertilization will be taking place in vitro, so that the two finalist teaspoons of sperm, tailed by fiberoptic cameras, can battle each other on TV as they try to reach the egg.
Don't got out and arrange to get a UK TV feed just yet though. Make Me a Mum isn't likely to get out of concept stage, based on public outrage and broadcaster indifference.
-----Source: Gene Expression, reporting on this Daily Mail UK article.
Posted by canton at 06:11 PM
July 12, 2004
Genetic Therapy for Cheating in Sports (Bioethics / Chicago Tribune)
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/living/9115937.htm----
Genetic technology, which already has altered our food supply, will soon be used to enhance our muscles and bodies, scientists say. Gene therapy can help rehabilitate patients suffering from muscle-wasting disease such as muscular dystrophy and improve muscle function for the elderly. But it also would inevitably be co-opted and abused by opportunistic athletes. Already, eager early adopters are knocking on the door of University of Pennsylvania genetic researcher H. Lee Sweeney, who has found that combining genetic manipulation with weight training can double muscle strength and speed in rats [Source: Bioethics + Human Dignity / Chicago Tribune]
Posted by canton at 10:00 PM | Comments (1)
July 07, 2004
Smegma bacteria to the rescue!
News on the cancer-fighting front: Mycobacterium smegmatis (yes, you did correctly guess where we got these fellows!) has been genetically modified to produce a protein which results in the destruction of unwanted cells. Researchers used one of these tricks where you fake out your own immune system by getting it to respond to something you've injected, though what you're really after is attacking the tumor nearby the injection spot.
To date it appears this may be the best way to treat bladder cancer... (8 out of 10 animals had no more tumors after being treated with the GM-bacteria.)
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Source: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3867331.stm
Posted by canton at 06:40 PM | Comments (3)
Prenatal testing without amnio fluid test?
This article is especially interesting to me because of what I feel is a clear and present ethical issue: inadvertent abortions caused by amniocentesis. (Amniocentesis: Test in which fluid surrounding a fetus is analyzed, usually to determine if baby is at risk for birth defects, sometimes to determine sex.)
The issue: This procedure ought to be done later in the pregnancy, but sometimes is done between the 14th and 18th weeks. For these early tests, 1 in 200 procedures result in a miscarriage. 0.5% might not seem like a big risk, but consider these numbers:
If you get pregnant when you're 37 years old, there is a 0.39% chance that your baby will have down syndrome. It's a big enough risk that many doctors will insist that clients age 37-plus take this test.
When you multiply out the miscarriage risk of early-term amnio tests against the down syndrome risk for 37 year old women, it turns out that for every 100 fetuses that are diagnosed with down syndrome, 128 healthy fetus are miscarried.
For the time being, disregard the ethical issue of whether or not it's appropriate to abort a baby because it is likely to develop down syndrome. At the very least, this news article (below) promises to make prenatal testing a bit safer...
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http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040707/01
Some worry that mass spec technique described in PNAS could be used for sex selection [Source:The Scientist :: Daily News]
Posted by canton at 06:24 PM
July 02, 2004
New sunscreen to promote DNA repair instead of just blocking sun
Interesting thing, as this article mentions that 1 in 3 new cancers diagnosed each year are skin cancers. (News to me!) Mechanism of function is interesting, as it modifies cell behavior instead of just being a sun shield.---
Scientists are on their way to creating a new generation of sunscreens that boost the skin’s ability to protect itself from skin cancer, with effects that could last for days rather than hours...
More...
[Source: Bioethics + Human Dignity]
Posted by canton at 12:59 AM
July 01, 2004
Welcome to the Future! (Almost.)
Welcome one, welcome all to GeneticFuture.org. I've been musing and reading about genetics for the past few years, especially as it relates to ethics, medicine, and agriculture. I haven't been transformed into a "bio-luddite", nor have I become a transhumanist GMO-munching cheerleader for the wholesale appropriation and rejiggering of the animal and plant genomes around us.
What I have concluded is that genetic engineering is going to be responsible for revolutionizing our economic, environmental, and personal landscapes. Furthermore, it seems clear to me that this is going to happen Real Soon Now, long before most of us have had a chance to understand and weigh the ethical considerations that come with all the goodies locked away in this particular Pandora's Box.
The purpose of geneticfuture.org is to build a resource which will help to keep us informed about developments in the fields of genetic and genomic research. It's not meant to be super-technical, nor dumbed down to USA-Today -- "MONKEY WITH SUPER BRAIN TO REPLACE HUMANS" -- style content.
For the time being, this site will consist of a blog in which I will track the news, organize some of my thoughts, and hopefully engage a number of folks in discussions about ethics, our hopes, our fears, and even the fate of monkeys with super brains. Later on, geneticfuture.org will be the home to something like a full-blown "wiki" which will make it easier for folks to learn more about the background and history of genetics.
For those of you who are curious about the image above, the "bar code" type stuff is what chromosome fingerprinting looks like to your average gene researcher. The lower image is in fact a fish being tagged by some game wardens, but doesn't it evoke some kind of weird DNA-tangled human manipulation future creepiness?
Posted by canton at 05:14 PM | TrackBack
Asthma -- 70% genetic?
What causes asthma? Is it more common today, or just more diagnosed? Do you get it as a result of living in a big polluted city? Or do you get it by taking too many baths?
HealthDay reports that Asthma [is] Emerging as Genetic Disorder
...A child with one parent who has asthma has a 30 percent chance of developing the airway condition herself. If both parents have it, her odds of getting it approach 70 percent -- not a given but a stacked deck.