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Genome From Birth

The idea of sequencing someone's genome at birth has been "has been around for a long time in a pie-in-the-sky way," Robert Green from Brigham and Women’s Hospital tells Carl Zimmer at Slate. But it is becoming more of a reality, Zimmer adds.

Green's BabySeq project recently received funding from the US National Institutes of Health to study how sequencing the genomes of some 240 healthy and ill infants affects their lives. They will be compared to a similar cohort of infants whose genomes will not be sequenced.

As the study is small, Zimmer notes that rare, deleterious mutations may not crop up. The project will, though, make the discussion of ethics in genomic medicine more concrete, he says.

“We’ll be grappling with them in real life, with real babies and real families and real clinicians and real laboratory results,” Green adds.

The Scan

Machine Learning Helps ID Molecular Mechanisms of Pancreatic Islet Beta Cell Subtypes in Type 2 Diabetes

The approach helps overcome limitations of previous studies that had investigated the molecular mechanisms of pancreatic islet beta cells, the authors write in their Nature Genetics paper.

Culture-Based Methods, Shotgun Sequencing Reveal Transmission of Bifidobacterium Strains From Mothers to Infants

In a Nature Communications study, culture-based approaches along with shotgun sequencing give a better picture of the microbial strains transmitted from mothers to infants.

Microbial Communities Can Help Trees Adapt to Changing Climates

Tree seedlings that were inoculated with microbes from dry, warm, or cold sites could better survive drought, heat, and cold stress, according to a study in Science.

A Combination of Genetics and Environment Causes Cleft Lip

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers investigate what combination of genetic and environmental factors come into play to cause cleft lip/palate.