Tagged: genetics

Free online tool could help women decide on breast reconstruction - News

Jean Balchin • Apr 05, 2018 •

• apps,
• Australia,
• Breast cancer,
• breast reconstruction,
• cancer,
• genetics,
• New Zealand,
• online tools

A new study published in Psycho-Oncology has revealed that a free web-based decision aid that helps women with breast cancer make decisions regarding reconstruction surgery after mastectomy is likely cost-effective. BRECONDA (Breast Reconstruction Decision Aid) is a tool that helps people make decisions about breast reconstruction surgery. It was developed in collaboration with an international team of breast surgeons, oncologists, … Read More

Potential genetic link in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) identified - News

Jean Balchin • Apr 02, 2018 •

• breathing,
• disorder,
• gene mutation,
• genetics,
• mutations,
• premature babies,
• SCN4A,
• sudden infant death syndrome

A case-control study in the UK and USA has found that rare genetic mutations associated with impairment of the breathing muscles are more common in children who have died from sudden infant death syndrome (cot death) than in healthy control children. Published recently in The Lancet, this study seems to indicate that there exists a possible genetic element of the disorder. Sudden … Read More

Book Review: The Tale of Mrs Possum – A Reflection on NZ Society - Scibooks

Jean Balchin • Mar 20, 2018 •

• biology,
• book review,
• chapter,
• childcare,
• epigenetics,
• Euthanasia,
• fashion,
• genetics,
• healthcare,
• history agriculture,
• human body,
• neuroscience,
• New Zealand,
• possum,
• Science Literacy

When I was a child, I was rather prone to misbehaving. On occasions when I was particularly naughty, my father would sit me down with a copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and would order me to rewrite four of my favourite entries. It wasn’t actually that bad a punishment; being rather childish and petulant, … Read More

Large-scale genetic study provides new insight into the causes of stroke - News

Jean Balchin • Mar 19, 2018 •

• artery,
• biology,
• Blood,
• blood vessel,
• cell,
• Dementia,
• genetics,
• genome,
• heart disease,
• protein,
• risk factor,
• Stroke,
• tissue,
• Treatment,
• vascular,
• venous thrombosis

An large-scale international genetic study on stroke, based on DNA samples of 520,000 people has identified 22 new genetic risk factors for stroke. Published recently in the journal Nature Genetics, the study’s participants originated from Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia, and were compiled from 29 large studies. 67,000 participants in the study had suffered a stroke. From … Read More

What’s that smell? Perfect poo pills! - News

Jean Balchin • Feb 15, 2018 •

• bowel health,
• donor bacteria,
• Drugs,
• feces,
• genetics,
• Harvard,
• MIT,
• poo,
• Transplant

Gut scientists have pored over numbers and come up with a way of predicting which good bacteria can be successfully transplanted in a poo transplant. What is a Poo Transplant? Fecal microorganism transplant (FMT) is a process wherein fecal matter (aka poo) is collected from a tested donor, mixed with a saline solution, strained, and reintroduced to a patient, … Read More

The Immortal Life of a Hydra - BioBlog

Jean Balchin • Feb 09, 2018 •

• evolution,
• fertility,
• genet,
• genetics,
• genus,
• hydra,
• Mortality,
• nonsenescence,
• offspring,
• organism,
• senescence,
• species

Students often get to look at hydras – tiny, fresh-water members of the group that includes sea anemones, jellyfish, corals, and the Portuguese man’o’war. All these cnidarians have a simple body-plan: two layers of true tissue with a jelly-like layer between them, a sac-like gut with a single opening that acts as both mouth and anus, and the characteristic stinging cells –  … Read More

How palaeolithic humans shaped the modern genome - News

Jean Balchin • Jan 31, 2018 •

• Africa,
• data generation,
• DNA,
• East Asia,
• Eurasia,
• genetics,
• genome,
• human evolution,
• interaction,
• migration,
• mRNA,
• Neandertal,
• Oceana,
• paleogeneticist,
• population structure,
• technology

When we think about our ancestry, we think about our grandmothers and grandfathers – and, if we have photo albums nearby, or a family member interested in genealogy, we might know a bit more about our great-grandmothers, great-grandfathers, and so on. I remember traveling around Scotland a few years ago, and chancing upon a small churchyard. Every second gravestone, most … Read More

Sleepwalking, Sex, and Murder: Part Two - Guest Work

Jean Balchin • Jan 09, 2018 •

• alcohol,
• Drugs,
• fatigue,
• genetics,
• hynotics,
• insomnia,
• Netflix,
• sleepwalking,
• tiredness

Part One in this Sleepwalking Saga can be read here. The Sleep Centre Thinking I’d benefit from a hands-on experience of sleep studies, I contacted a sleep clinic. According to their website, the clinic staff perform a “wide range of home sleep tests for snoring, sleep apnoea, sleep/wake cycles, restless legs, and other sleep disorders.” … Read More

‘Honey, I’m related to Genghis Khan’: the hype around ancestral DNA testing - Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives

Nic Rawlence • Nov 27, 2017 •

• 23andMe,
• Ancestral DNA,
• AncestryDNA,
• consuming science,
• DNA testing,
• EasyDNA,
• FamilyTreeDNA,
• genetics,
• mitochondrial DNA,
• MyHeritage

Television documentaries focusing on the use of ancestral DNA to reveal hidden mysteries in family trees are becoming increasingly popular. However, in our house they are known as ‘the time Daddy rants at the TV’. Quite frequently, you will hear me exclaim to my kids ‘You can’t say that!’ or ‘There’s no evidence to support that’, before I throw … Read More

Evolution actually – A tale of two disciplines - Lippy Linguist

Andreea Calude • Nov 09, 2017 •

• boundary work,
• evolutionary theory,
• genetics,
• language,
• linguistics,
• peer review,
• phylogenetics,
• publishing,
• scientific disciplines

I wrote a recent post which touched on adopting approaches from other disciplines, specifically biology, and applying them to language data. It started a long time ago, that we realised language, as abstract and elusive as it might seem, can be thought of (and even more, modelled) in a similar vein to biological phenomena – people credit Darwin with … Read More