Monthly Archives: April 2017

RE: FDA Warns of 14 ‘Fraudulent’ Cancer Cure Companies

This timely article is from today’s NBC­_News.com It is just another example of the types of fraud and corruption going on, within the peripheral fields of “science.” 🙁 DwN FDA Warns of 14 ‘Fraudulent’ Cancer Cure Companies BY MAGGIE FOX … Continue reading

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Genetic interactions improve models of individual quantitative trait phenotypes

Sometimes, when human clinical studies are too difficult to undertake, and animal studies (such as the intact mouse) are similarly difficult to perform and tease out important data from all “background noise,” it is useful to study yeast cells in … Continue reading

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“Research parasites” = “Individuals who had nothing to do with the study, but use another goup’s data for their own gains”

In an editorial published last year [N Engl J Med 2o16; 374: 276–277.], concept of “research parasites” was introduced. These individuals who “have nothing to do with the design and execution of the study, but rather they use another group’s … Continue reading

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Reconstructing the genome of the most recent common ancestor of flowering plants

Flowering plants (angiosperms) are the dominant land plants of today, forming an integral part of the carbon, oxygen and water cycles and are thus essential to the climate stability of the planet. Flowering plants are also essential for human existence … Continue reading

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Combining Genomics and Metabolomics — WGS identifies common-to-rare variants associated with human blood metabolites

First was the study of “the genome” and they called it “genomics.” Then came the sequencing of the coding regions (exons) from mRNA transcribed from the DNA, and they called it “transcriptomics.” Then came the protein sequences, called of course … Continue reading

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Diversity found in non-repetitive human sequences NOT found in the human Rreference Genome

First there was the claim (April 2oo3) by both Craig Venter of Celera Genomics and the NIHGR-funded Human Genome Project that “the sequence of the human haploid genome had been completed”, but, in actuality, another 10-15% of (mostly) repetitive DNA … Continue reading

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Passing (many forms of) epigenetic effects — silently on to the next generation

After the last email (about “instinct” clearly involving epigenetic effects) –– the attached pdf file contains one editorial followed by three papers on different phenotypes being elicited by epigenetics effects. Every cell in an organism (except mammalian red cells) contains … Continue reading

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Epigenetics and the evolution of ANIMAL INSTINCTS

We all realize that an animal’s mind is not born as an empty canvas: bottlenose dolphins are born alive and immediately know how to swim, monarch butterflies know how to leave the Mexican mountains after birth and migrate all the … Continue reading

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Prenatal Arsenic Exposure Alters Newborn Metabolite Profiles

Below is a fascinating summary of recent research involving arsenic exposure in pregnant women (in Mexico). DwN Research Brief 268 Superfund Research Program Prenatal Arsenic Exposure Alters Newborn Metabolite Profiles View Research Brief as PDF (401KB) Release Date: 04/05/2017 Researchers … Continue reading

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Dynamic role of trans-regulation of gene expression in relation to Complex traits

In genome-wide association studies (GWAS), identifying causal DNA-sequence genetic variants and understanding their mechanisms of effect on the trait being studied remains a challenge. In particular, how these genetic variants, [e.g. expression quantitative trait loci distant from the gene they … Continue reading

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