National Children's Study expanded
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that it is to scale-up its controversial National Children's Study with the opening of 30 new study locations in addition to the existing...
View ArticleMajor new biobank to launch in Qatar
Dr Hanan Al Kuwari, Chair of the Qatar Biobank Steering Committee said that the facility would work closely with the government to identify health targets or areas for further investment, adding...
View ArticleMedical data explosion requires urgent system changes
A new report - Towards Precision Medicine - published by the National Research Council earlier this month highlights the need for new systems to incorporate the...
View ArticlePhilosophical issues in epidemiology and risk
Report author Alex Broadbent notes that epidemiology, the core science of public health, has been relatively neglected by philosophers, ethicists and social sciences, but poses lots of important...
View ArticleGenetic key may unlock multiple sclerosis prevention
Researchers have uncovered new evidence of a genetic link between vitamin D deficiency and increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). Multiple sclerosis is a complex and progressive inflammatory...
View ArticleMore evidence linking telomeres and early ageing
Understanding more about the role of telomeres in both normal ageing and disease risk is important – but as many other factors (including epigenetics) are likely to be involved, commercial...
View ArticleEpigenetic links with schizophrenia risk
Studies into schizophrenia are revealing new insights into the genetic and environmental influences on the disease. Scientists have previously found that genetic factors account for about 50% of the...
View ArticleMore pieces in the genetic puzzle of autism
Whole exome-sequencing studies have identified a large number of mutations associated with significantly increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Published in the journal Nature,...
View ArticleEpigenetic test could inform breast cancer risk prediction
UK researchers have published data in the journal Cancer Research showing a strong link between an epigenetic modification of a gene in white blood cells and the risk of breast cancer. The...
View ArticleGene linked to memory capacity and risk of PTSD
A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has identified a gene that influences both the capacity to form memories and an individual’s susceptibility to...
View ArticleContribution of genes and environment depends on where you live
A new study suggests that the relative contributions of genes and environment to complex traits may, in part, depend upon the location in which you grow up. The research looked at 6759 pairs of 12...
View ArticleHuman Microbiome Project work published
Members of research consortium the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) have published several papers in Nature, Genome Biology and PLoS journals this week. The project, funded by the US National Institutes...
View ArticleOlympic lab to become Phenome Centre
The Prime Minister has announced that the laboratories used for Olympic drug testing will become a centre for phenome research after the games are over. The concept of the phenome encapsulates all of...
View ArticleGene region link to bipolar disorder confirmed
One of the largest ever genetic replication studies examining links with mental illness has provided strong evidence that a particular chromosomal region influences risk of bipolar affective disorder...
View ArticleMicrobe interactions shaped inflammatory bowel disease
A large-scale study has identified 71 genome regions newly linked with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and suggests these disorders may be the result of an evolutionary ‘arms...
View ArticleCompetition aims to accelerate rare disease research
A competition for research into rare diseases was launched last month by a partnership of 21 different life science companies. The competition Rare Disease Science Challenge: Be HEARD (Helping Empower...
View ArticleUS biobank reports early findings
A US biobank project reported some of its early findings at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) annual conference in San Francisco last week. The project by health care consortium Kaiser...
View ArticleGenes or environment: is it the wrong question?
The recently published excellent debate between John Wilding and Timothy Frayling in the BMJ on whether the causes of obesity are primarily environmental brings into sharp focus the problems of...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....