Tag: genetic

05 AUG

With genetic morph, a weird type of anthrax has emerged—and it’s on a rampage

Enlarge (credit: Getty | Barcroft Media) After getting ahold of the genetic blueprints for molecular weapons, relatively harmless bacteria transformed into one that can cause anthrax—in places and animals where the original anthrax bacteria doesn’t. And it’s wreaking havoc. Using data collected over a 26-year period, researchers found that this strange version of anthrax is […]

03 AUG

Genetic testing threatens the insurance industry

The knowledge premium IF A genetic test could tell whether you are at increased risk of getting cancer or Alzheimer’s, would you take it? As such tests become more accessible, more and more people are saying “yes”. The insurance industry faces a few headaches as a result. Once used only for medical reasons, basic predictive […]

31 JUL

Genetic engineering creates an unnaturally blue flower

Blue flowers are rare in nature, and for good reason: the color is usually the result of mutations and quirks of acidity levels rather than an actual blue pigment. That makes genetically engineering a blue flower tricky, since you can’t just make a straightforward tweak and expect a garden full of unnatural hues. Scientists have […]

27 JUL

Genetic evidence suggests the Canaanites weren’t destroyed after all

Claude Doumet-Serhal The Canaanites are famous as the bad guys of the Book of Joshua in the Tanakh, or the Hebrew Bible. First, God orders the Hebrews to destroy the Canaanites along with several other groups, and later we hear that the Canaanites have actually been wiped out. Among archaeologists, however, the Canaanites are a […]

06 JUL

Google may get access to genetic data for patients  — here’s why that might be a problem

Thomson Reuters Artificial intelligence is already being put to use in the NHS, with Google’s AI firm DeepMind providing technology to help monitor patients. Now I have discovered that Google has met with Genomic England – a company set up by the Department of Health to deliver the 100,000 Genomes Project – to discuss whether DeepMind could […]

04 MAY

A gene therapy that cures a rare genetic disease just got its first customer, a year after it was approved

Thomson Reuters A child in Europe has become the second individual ever to receive a commercial gene therapy, according to GlaxoSmithKline. The treatment, called Strimvelis, can provide an outright cure for a rare inherited immune deficiency by revising a patient’s genetic makeup (see “Gene Therapy’s First Out-and-Out Cure Is Here”). Gene therapy has been widely […]