With just $399 and a bit of saliva in a cup, consumers can learn about their genetic risk for diseases. Now, thanks to social networking sites, they can also share that information with family, friends and even strangers on the Internet. This sounds relatively harmless, but according to Stanford bioethicists, sharing genetic information online raises a host of ethical questions.

Tagged: ethics, genetics, Human Health, Medicine

Scientists around the world may benefit from a powerful new database, available for free online, that will help them to home in on the parts of proteins most necessary for their function.

Tagged: DNA, genetics, proteins, Human Health, Medicine

The genome of a squirrel-sized, saucer-eyed lemur from Madagascar may help scientists understand how HIV-like viruses coevolved with primates, according to new research from Stanford. The discovery could provide insight into why non-human primates don’t get AIDS and lead to treatments for humans.

Tagged: aids, genetics, Human Health, Medicine

Who knew cat urine could be sexy? With a dab here and a dab there, you can have male rats swooning over you. For a long time, scientists have been trying to understand the underlying biology of this odd behavior without any luck. By probing the parasite's DNA, one Stanford researcher may have stumbled across the answer and added to our understanding of evolution.

 

 

Tagged: evolution, genetics, neuroscience, Human Health, Humanities & Sciences

Medical school researchers have uncovered an extensive, but until now barely noticed, network of regulatory interactions that influence what proteins are made inside a cell, and when and where.

Tagged: genetics, proteins, Human Health, Medicine

The nervous system and the immune system have something in common. Each has evolved to react quickly to environmental cues. Because the nervous system is able to detect some of these cues - say, a characteristic odor signaling a pathogen’s presence - at a distance, it sometimes can sense trouble earlier than the immune system.  So it makes sense that the two systems might talk to one another. Stanford geneticists have shown that, indeed, they do.

Tagged: genetics, immunity, Human Health, Medicine

Pregnant women worried about their babies' genetic health face a tough decision: get prenatal gene testing and risk miscarriage, or skip the tests and miss the chance to learn of genetic defects before birth. But a new prenatal test could make this dilemma obsolete.

Tagged: DNA, genetics, Human Health, Medicine

Long-ago lager beer brewers were practicing genetics without even knowing it, according to new research by geneticists at the School of Medicine. The research offers a glimpse into the early history of beer brewing, as well as an unheralded sneak peek at the early days of the evolution of a new yeast species.

 

Tagged: DNA, genetics, Human Health, Medicine