Connection Between Epigenome, Selective Mutability, Evolution, and Human Disease
Li, Harris et al., PLoS Genetics
Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine and elsewhere propose a "connection between the epigenome, selective mutability, evolution, and human disease" based on the findings of their study on associations of structural mutability with germline DNA methylation and with non-allelic homologous recombination mediated by low-copy repeats. "Combined evidence from four human sperm methylome maps, human genome evolution, structural polymorphisms in the human population, and previous genomic and disease studies consistently points to a strong association of germline hypomethylation and genomic instability," the Baylor-led team writes.
Patents, Patents Everywhere
The US Patent and Trademark Office is holding two hearings — one this week and other in March — to gather information on "independent second opinion genetic diagnostic testing" on genes that are already patented or exclusively licensed by other companies, reports Patent Docs' Donald Zuhn. USPTO is planning to gather the information it receives from the hearings and make a report to Congress. The panel will also see a video from Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who introduced an amendment to the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act for patent reform "that would have exempted from infringement a 'genetic diagnostic tester's performance of a confirming generic diagnostic test activity' that would otherwise constitute infringement" under the act, Zuhn says. The Leahy-Smith Act was passed in 2011, but without Wasserman Schultz's amendment, he adds.