Genetic Justification For The Mediterranean Diet

Genetic Justification For The Mediterranean Diet

The reduced risk of cardiovascular disease seen in people who eat a Mediterranean diet may be attributable to the phenolic components of virgin olive oil, which repress several pro-inflammatory genes…
Friction And Epistasis: You Can't Ignore 'em

Friction And Epistasis: You Can't Ignore 'em

Personalized genetics is hot in the news right now, but in fact we're generally terrible at using genotypes to predict who is going to get a disease. One villain here is the phenomenon known as…
Stem Cells Could Replace Rats In The Lab

Stem Cells Could Replace Rats In The Lab

New tissue engineering research could greatly reduce the number of lab animals required for FDA mandated experimental trials on new health products with medical formulations. Scientists from Tel Aviv…
Dealing with Dependence

Dealing with Dependence

My academic adventures have exposed me to a fairly large amount of mathematics.  While I seem to end up wishing I had taken even more mathematics, computer science, and statistics coursework…
Mice Regain Sight After Nanoparticle Gene Therapy

Mice Regain Sight After Nanoparticle Gene Therapy

Scientists have developed a non-viral, synthetic nanoparticle carrier to improve and save the sight of mice with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease characterized by progressive vision loss…
Genetically Modified Plants Help Treat Hemophilia

Genetically Modified Plants Help Treat Hemophilia

Hemophilia is caused by a genetic defect that inhibits the body's ability to control blood clotting. The two forms of the disease — hemophilia A and B — are associated with the absence of proteins…
Big Shots Slam Nature

Big Shots Slam Nature

Mark Ptashne, Oliver Hobert, and Eric Davidson talk sense on epigenomics: We were astonished to see two sentences in your Editorial on the International Human Epigenome Consortium (Nature 463, 587;…
The Trouble With Biology

The Trouble With Biology

I've heard a senior colleague say that there is nothing fundamental left to be discovered in biology. It's a nagging worry some people have, including myself. What's left, according to some (…