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23andMe: Time’s Best invention of 2008

October 31, 2008 on 4:11 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

Just two years since conception and personal genome services company 23andMe’s Personal Genome Service™ has earned TIME Magazine’s Best Invention of the Year for "its exceptional work in making personal genomics accessible and affordable".

Dubbed the Pioneer in retail genomics, 23andMe is able to provide genetic risk and predisposition for more than 90 traits and conditions to clients for only $399.00 and a saliva kit. Clients don’t even have to leave home to do it, and they can access it all in their personal website/database. If they so wish, clients can even compare their genomes with other family members who are also 23andMe participants.

This award makes the point that genomics revolution is here faster than we thought possible when the human genome first got sequenced. As more people get hold of their genetic information, it is all the more important for a thoughtful regulation be put in place, and a more effective education of genomic revolution be made available.

Tags: 23andMe, invention of the year, personal genome service, time magazine

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G&H give-away: Go! Go! Beauty lotions

October 30, 2008 on 1:40 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

Even mad scientists like me need to beautify every once in a while. And, it’s the first ever give-away at Genetics and Health so let’s see how it goes -

Go! Go! Beauty is a natural plant-based skin lotion that are themed to celebrate the world’s beautiful diversity. Go! Go! comes in 2 scents for each kind of lotion -

• Go!Go! Asian – Green Tea Antioxidant Lotion
• Go!Go! Latin – Verbena, Grapeseed & Olive Oil Lotion
• Go!Go! African – Shea Butter Lotion
• Go!Go! European – Oatmeal & Soy Lotion

All natural Go!Go! Beauty products have never been or ever will be tested on animals. The ingredients are biodegradable, that none are derived from animals (with the exception of bee pollen and honey) and that all of their packaging is recyclable. Every purchase of Go!Go! products also gives something back. For every 200 bottles sold, Go!Go! will donate $100 to Women for Women International, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women in war-torn countries around the world rebuild their lives.

Go! Go! donated three lotions. So, how do you join?

• One entry per person per day. Check out the scent from below and let me know which one you want.
• It’s open to residents of the US only.
• Contest ends 11:59 midnight EST on November 7, 2008 (Friday).
• Three winners will be randomly chosen and announced via blog and email the week after.
• If a winner does not reply within 3 days, he/she forfeits her winnings and an alternate entry will be chosen.
• REMINDER #1 : In previous contests, I have had several winners forfeited for failure to reply to my emails.  Please make sure your settings don’t put my email into the junk folder, otherwise you’ll have no idea you won. Better yet, please check this blog for the winners’ list after the contest ends. Best bet, come back often and stay a reader!

Go!Go! Asian – Green Tea Antioxidant Lotion. Green tea is anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory lotion that can do wonders for our health and our skin. Blended harmoniously with vitamin E, A, D, deep-penetrating B-5 and beta-carotene, this lavish cream not only moisturizes, but naturally slows signs of aging by fighting the damage done by the sun and pollution. Enjoy ageless skin and timeless refinement.

“Koi Garden” Scent. The gentle water laps at your toe as jewel-toned koi fish glide below. A breeze momentarily stirs the calm, and carried on it are the floral notes of cherry blossom, peony, and delicate white lotus.

“Golden Temple” Scent. With each pure, ringing note from a nearby Tibetan singing bowl, you are carried deeper into meditative serenity. Floating in the air around you are the heady, cleansing scents of amber, sandalwood, rosewood, and a fleeting hint of rice flower.

Go!Go! Latin – Verbena, Grapeseed & Olive Oil Lotion. Verbena, found from Colombia and Brazil to Argentina and Chile—is popularly used in smooth, soothing balms. Grapeseed is prized for its regenerative and moisturizing properties (also reduces the appearance of stretch marks!), while olive oil is packed with natural, nutritive antioxidants. Both have been used in Spain for centuries in emollients and massage oils. Add to that the organic botanicals of aloe, mandarin, and lavender, plus green tea, vitamins C and E, shea and jojoba, and you and your skin will be left looking muy caliente!

“Playa Tropical” Scent. Golden sands at your feet, silver crests on the waves, and a copper glint on your skin. You’re rich! And just when you thought you couldn’t ask for more, the luscious smells of tropical fruits drift by: banana, coconut, mango, pineapple, and papaya.

“Café Romance” Scent. The warmth seeps through the cup and into your hands. Before you take a sip, you breathe in the decadent aroma. Mmm! Fresh coffee, with a kiss of dulce de leche, a ribbon of chocolate, the sweet embrace of vanilla bean and Valencia orange… You’re in love.

Go!Go! African – Shea Butter Lotion. This rich, creamy lotion contains 5% pure African shea butter, just enough of the emollient to shield your skin from the fierce elements and provide enduring hydration. Bring your inner radiance to the surface with healing aloe, rejuvenating sugar cane, and anti-oxidant grapeseed and vitamin E. Smooth it on. Your skin laps it up so that you will feel absolutely royal.

“Emerald Canopy” Scent. A flash of an iris, the flutter of a wing, a rustle, a puff. Out here, the movements of animals and the borders of plants blend. You, too, are part of this drumming, this humming of nature. Breathe it: fresh herbaceous perfumes, exotic fruits, and everywhere, a clean mist.

“Spice Bazaar” Scent. The heat of the day lingers as darkness falls, and you venture into the night market where sultry sights and sumptuous flavors await. Dip your hand into a basket and let the spices sift through your fingers. If mystery has a scent, here it is: cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger…

Go!Go! European – Oatmeal & Soy Lotion. Rich and nourishing, oats have been enjoyed as a staple in Europe since their cultivation 3,000 years ago.  Colloidal oatmeal calms and relieves dry, itchy and chapped skin, while the soy herein enhances your skin’s ability to retain moisture. Add in the benefits of cooling aloe and algae, avocado, glycerin, grapeseed and vitamin E, and you’ll soon find your skin not only soothed, but soft and supple too.

Cobblestone Bakery” Scent. What a day! You allow your feet relief from walking, your eyes reprieve from sightseeing, and you take a seat. Comfort comes your way from inside the bakery. You indulge in the warm aroma of cinnamon, sweet almond and spicy gingerbread.

“Blooming Orchard” Scent. Far from the city squalor, the provincial air does both you and the trees a world of good. You pluck a crisp apple from a bough and inhale the fragrance of its skin. Scents wafting over from nearby branches bearing plump peaches and pears make for an enchanting potpourri.

Tags: beauty, contests health, natural products

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Maternal starvation has lasting effect on fetus’ DNA

October 30, 2008 on 10:21 am | In General Genetics and Health, Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, Genetically Modified Food | Comments Off

Malnourishment in a pregnant woman has a lasting effect on her child’s DNA. This was the implications of a new study on children born during the famine of World War II.

Scientists studied the DNA of children who were born to women starved during the 1944 Hunger Winter in the Netherlands. They analyzed a gene called insulin-like growth factor 2 or IGF2, an important growth hormone. Methyl groups that attach to IGF2 very early in fetal development determine how much of the growth hormone is made later, and protect the DNA from damage.

The scientists found that those children (now in their 60s)  who were exposed to famine in the first trimester of pregnancy had lesser methyl groups in the IGF2 gene than their siblings of the same sex.

Loss of methylation in IGF2 has previously been linked to colorectal cancer in humans. In this latest study, it’s too early to tell what the epigenetic effects are of a mother’s starvation on the adult life of her child. But the take home from this is that extreme maternal diet (either starvation or eating disorder) does affect the fetal DNA, and those effects leave their mark decades later.

Tags: igf2, imprinting, insuline like growth factor 2, methylation, starvation

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Toddler struggles to fight rare genetic disease

October 30, 2008 on 2:09 am | In General Genetics and Health | Comments Off

I first learned of this rare recessive disorder mucopolysaccharidosis VI, or MPS VI from the story of 3-year old boy Trey Lane, who suffers from it.

Mucopolysaccharidosis VI, or MPS VI is a rare unpredictable disorder resulting from a deficiency of arylsulfatase B, thus preventing the degradation of polysaccharides. The excessive amounts of polysaccharides in the affected person’s body compresses soft tissues and bones and hinders proper growth of the bones. Most affected individuals have short stature, deformed facial structures, stiff joints, and corneal clouding.

Featured in the Arizona Central, Trey’s story captured media attention when his doctors told him that his $20,000-per-week treatment didn’t seem to be working (in delaying the progression of the disease). Trey hasn’t grown an inch or gained a pound in months. Trey soon met a 20-year old man who has been suffering from the same disorder and the two families found mutual support. Later, word got out about the young boy’s struggles and schools and other children began donating to his treatment. Next month, Trey will go back to Minnesota and try another round of treatments. The Arizona Central article didn’t mention the specific treatments for Trey, but a clinical trial for an enzyme replacement therapy using recombinant human arylsulfatase B (rhASB) recently found success.

Tags: arsb, arylsulfatase B, clinical trials, MPS VI, Mucopolysaccharidosis VI, rare genetic disorders, recombinant human technology, treatment, trey lane

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Familiar faces speak as patients (AAFP annual scientific assembly)

October 27, 2008 on 11:54 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off Nicole Johnson, MPH, would like physicians to be a little more positive. And as a former beauty queen and current diabetes activist, she hopes that telling doctors this will enhance the care she and other patients receive.

Johnson was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1993, when she was a 19-year-old college sophomore. Her physician told her to drop out of school and stop entering beauty pageants. Those activities, he said, were now too stressful. She also should forget about bearing children.

"I was told my life was over ... and the worst part was that I believed it," she said, during a plenary session at the American Academy of Family Physicians' scientific assembly in San Diego, Sept. 17-21. After long-fought efforts to get her disease under control, she earned two master's degrees and won the 1999 Miss America Pageant. And she is a mother.

Johnson was one of several well-known people who detailed their experiences as part of the AAFP's new "Face of Disease" program. These lectures were paired with clinical insights by experts in the field.

"We wanted to try new types of learning, and this is one avenue we hadn't tried. We always hear from experts and family physicians. We never really get it from the patients," said Bradley P. Fox, MD, chair of the AAFP's subcommittee for scientific programming and a family physician in Erie, Pa.

Suicide attempts are more common in patients with bipolar disorder than in those with unipolar depression.

The patients who spoke at the meeting generally praised the physicians in their lives, but also offered suggestions.

Johnson, for example, urged physicians and other health professionals to look at her face and see her as a human being, not just a list of blood glucose numbers. She also felt that outcomes would improve if efforts were made to get patients more engaged in the treatment processes.

"Healing can come to patients' hearts and minds when they are offered a chance to be a part of the circle of care -- when you're not just part of the problem, when you can help be part of the solution," said Johnson.

Such involvement was supported by Steven Edelman, MD, professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes at the University of California, San Diego. He was the expert who spoke after Johnson. Dr. Edelman, who also has type 1 diabetes, teaches patients to figure out their own insulin dosages. "It gets them motivated," he said.

The therapeutic value of listening

When she was in her late teens, actress Patty Duke began experiencing extreme mood swings -- steep lows followed by equally extreme highs, a cycle that continued until she was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. She started taking lithium at age 35. Before taking this medication, there would be months when she couldn't get out of bed, followed by periods of extravagant spending and anonymous sexual experiences.

"I remember wishing the doctor would listen to me, even if what I had to say was gobbledygook," said Duke. She urged physicians to ask patients more often about suicidal tendencies. "There isn't anything you could ask a person like me that could make me worse."

Stanley Oakley Jr., MD, a bipolar disorder expert who spoke after Duke, said it was vital to distinguish this illness from unipolar depression, and suggested several signs that may differentiate the two. Bipolar disorder tends to have a stronger family history, and suicide attempts are more common, said Dr. Oakley, an associate professor of psychiatry at East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine.

He also advocated checking metabolic factors, such as thyroid function, and reviewing medication side effects to hunt for a possible root cause. "We want to make sure we're not causing [bipolar symptoms]."

The family may be hurting, too

Duke and others implored physicians not to forget about patients' families when they are addressing specific health issues.

James "Butch" Rosser Jr., MD, chief of minimally invasive surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, had gastric bypass surgery eight years ago to treat his morbid obesity.

The 1999 Miss America advocates for patients with diabetes.

But his wife, Dana Rosser, for years withstood the collateral damage brought about by his weight problem. She curtailed her social life because her husband could not fit in the seats of many venues. She also held herself responsible for his weight.

"I stopped doing a lot of social things. That really hurt me," she said. "And I felt that the pressure was on me to cook meals that were delicious and nutritious. If I didn't make the meals correctly and he gained weight, it would be my fault."

Dr. Rosser spoke of the stigma and shame that can be attached to the outward manifestations of his condition.

"The victims of obesity have no place to hide," said Dr. Rosser, who weighed as much as 460 lbs. before his surgery. "I was so embarrassed. There was sadness in my heart."

Other speakers included actress Sally Field, who has osteoporosis, and Grace Anne Dorney Koppel, a lawyer and wife of journalist Ted Koppel, who spoke about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.