John Kerr • Sep 22, 2016 •
Where did we come from and when did we leave there? These existential questions are at the heart of several human genetics studies published today in the leading journal Nature, all with links to New Zealand. Tracing our genetic roots The now widely accepted ‘Out of Africa’ hypothesis puts Africa as the origin of all modern humans. However, there is still debate … Read More
Guest Work • Sep 14, 2016 •
Sarah Bailey, University of Bath Depression is sometimes categorised as a mental, rather than a physical illness – as though somehow mental health is different from physical health. But the brain is not a magical black box inside your head. It is an organ, just like the heart or lungs, made up of cells and supplied with … Read More
Guest Work • Oct 05, 2015 •
Eliza Berlage, The Conversation Researchers have gained new insights into genetic variation among people living around the world after sequencing the genomes of more than 2,500 people from across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. The report, published today in Nature, details the final set of findings from the 1000 Genomes Project, which was launched … Read More
Peter Dearden • Jul 26, 2015 •
The sequencing of the Kiwi genome by scientists outside New Zealand is a call to action. New Zealand should be examining the genomes of species of importance to us. Let's investigate our biological heritage ourselves. Read More
Guest Work • Oct 18, 2013 •
Today the Sciblogs Podcast talks to Rick Leach. Rick started off as a microbiologist but has worked as a research scientist for the US Defense Department and for the National Cancer Institute before genomics peaked his interest. He is now the vice president of Complete Genomics, which specialises in accurate whole human genome sequencing and analysis. We hear from … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Sep 12, 2013 •
Blogimmuniqués are my irregular commmuniqués about Code for life. Over the next few weeks you’ll notice a few changes in the titles of posts, identifying the intended audience of different articles. Briefly, Articles ending in (Not Just DNA #1), with an appropriate post number in place of ‘1’, are part of an irregular series of … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Mar 15, 2013 •
Those with interests in epigenetics and genome structure may want to check out Nature Structural and Molecular Biology’s focus on epigenetic dynamics. (This gives me an opportunity to briefly sound off on a favourite topic…) One fascinating development over the past few years has been explorations of the three-dimensional nature of genomes, how they are … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Nov 30, 2012 •
While I work on longer pieces, a stray thought: how far away are we from genome screening for (court) inquiries about ‘vaccine damage’ so that those with genetic causes might be resolved promptly? A number of countries maintain databases of reports of possible adverse reactions to medications. For possible vaccine reactions, in New Zealand we have … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Nov 29, 2012 •
At first you wonder if this sea star is real. It looks more like a kid’s geometric doodle from a distracted afternoon at school than an animal.[1] [caption id="attachment_10195" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Click on image for source; Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license[/caption] The World Asteriodea Database indicates Iconaster longimanus was first described in 1859. (The … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Oct 16, 2012 •
Biologists and bioinformatics people interested in high-throughput (HTS) mapping may find this this one-page summary of all currently-available HTS mapping tools useful. The comparison table of the different features of each mapping tools will certainly beat having to dig this information out of the papers or on-line documentation. There’s also a timeline of when the methods first appeared. DNA, RNA, miRNA … Read More