Three announcements that could have a big impact on genetic testing:
Scientists have developed a new technique to identify genes that increase the chance of women developing breast cancer. They hope it will lead to a single blood test which would reveal a woman’s risk of getting the disease.
Scientists found two genes responsible for breast cancer two years ago. But now new research led by Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute, published in the Nature journal, has found five more.
The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has approved the highly-controversial procedure for three families whose children risk dying unless they receive a transplant of healthy stem cells from a sibling with a tissue match.
But for the first time authorities will allow the embryos to be screened to find a tissue match for a sick sibling, in a process called human leukocyte antigen testing (HLA).
Prize4Life — an X-PRIZE-style competition intended to stimulate innovation and produce tangible results in ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) research — recently awarded its first prizes: Five researchers each received $15,000 to develop a biomarker for tracking the progression of ALS, a fatal disease.
Such a biomarker would enable scientists to test for ALS before the visible onset of symptoms, similar to markers in the blood of AIDS patients.
Hsien at Eye on DNA and Steven at The genes Sherpa will probably post their comments on these findings.
My posts on the same subjects from before:
