Human Genetic Variation Alters Anthrax Toxin Sensitivity
Martchenko, Candille et al., PNAS
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine show that genetic variation affecting capillary morphogenesis gene 2, or CMG2, dramatically alters toxin sensitivity in humans. In its analysis, the team reports on "a CMG2 single-nucleotide polymorphism occurring frequently in African and European populations [that they found] independently altered toxin uptake." The group goes on to suggest "testing of genomically characterized human cell populations may offer a broadly useful strategy for elucidating effects of genetic variation on infectious disease susceptibility."
You Are Human, Right?
August 28, 2009
In New Scientist, Peter Aldhous recounts that Blaine Bettinger emailed him to ask about his DNA profile: "This is a strange question, but are you sure this is Homo sapiens?" Sometimes, when looking at his DecodeMe data, Aldhous's mitochondrial DNA marker would appear to have undergone a "bizarre mangling." Other times, though, it matched his 23andMe data. The problem, Aldhous discovered, came from a bug in Decode's database software. "That's sobering, because enthusiasts for health information technology envisage a future in which computer systems like Decode's will query databases holding people's DNA profiles to help doctors make decisions on which drugs to prescribe, and at what doses," Aldhous writes. Decode told Aldhous that it is looking into the problem.
Talking of bizarre manglings,
Talking of bizarre manglings, "Alshour" is a variant of my name that I've never seen before ;-)
Wow! That really was
Wow! That really was mangled. Sorry about that -- it's fixed now.