Monthly Archives: December 2018

Genetics Humor

This cartoon by Scott Nickel in Mad Magazine is kind of cute. Comment would of course have to bring up the fact that these guys are also a few percent cellulose and other wood items, a little vegetable matter and … Continue reading

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Enhanced Removal of VOCs by a Genetically Modified Houseplant, Expressing Mammalian CYP2E1 Gene

Authors (see attached article) state that “household air is more polluted than office air and school air, and those who spend much of their time at home, such as children and homeworkers, receive a proportionately higher dose of ‘home air … Continue reading

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Emery and Rimoin’s Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ERPPMGG) Dec, 2018

For those interested in integrating genetics/genomics into medical practice –– the latest edition (“of the ultimate resource”) can now be purchased from Amazon.com –– the eTextbook is $118.75 and the hard-cover copy is amazingly only $125. This includes ELEVEN VOLUMES … Continue reading

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FLYING — Without combustion or moving parts — IONIC WIND

This topic has little, if anything, to do with gene-environment interactions. Yet — the possibilities and potential applications of this concept might be be a game-changer to our future generations. Anyone who has watched the Star Wars movie series has … Continue reading

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Human models are needed for studying human neurodevelopmental disorders

There is a need to understand human neurodevelopmental processes and disorders — including diseases caused by, or worsened by, exposure to environmental toxicants. Animal models (especially differences between inbred mouse strains or transgenic mouse lines) can be indispensable for determining … Continue reading

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Individual variability in cardiovascular complex disease — affected by genetics and the gut microbiome

On these GEITP pages we have had a continuing dialogue on impact of the human genome vs impact of the gut microbiome — on human health, especially considering the latest advances in high-throughput deep-sequencing [also called next-generation sequencing (NGS); and … Continue reading

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Statistical pitfalls of “personalized medicine”

“Personalized medicine” has become a buzzword for many clinicians and geneticists during the past decade. Personalized medicine aims to match each individual with the (most appropriate) therapy that is “best suited to him/her for their condition” (this goal of course, … Continue reading

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“Driver mutations” in human esophagus (as function of age), but appear not to lead to cancer Nebert, Daniel (nebertdw)

One manifestation of gene-environment interactions is that: environmental adversity can cause (presumably random) DNA mutations in various genes, as well as throughout the entire genome (keeping in mind that ~99% of the genome is DNA that does not code for … Continue reading

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Nicotine exposure of male mice produces behavioral impairment in F1 and F2 generations of offspring

Among cigarette-smoking pregnant mothers, studies have demonstrated an association with increased risk of behavioral disorders — not only in their children, but also in multiple generations of descendants [see Refs. 1–5 of the attached article]. Although maternal nicotine use is … Continue reading

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Gene expression variability across cells and species helps shape innate immunity

The innate immune response is a cell-intrinsic defense program that is rapidly up-regulated upon infection in most cell types. It acts to inhibit pathogen (i.e. virus, bacteria, fungus) replication, while signaling the pathogen’s presence to other cells. This program involves … Continue reading

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