Health News

Type 2 Diabetes Linked to Increased Risk for Parkinson’s

New analyses of both observational and genetic data have provided “convincing evidence” that type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk for Parkinson’s disease. Dr Alastair Noyce “The fact that we see the same effects in both types of analysis separately makes it more likely that these results are real — that type 2 […]

Health Problems

Symptoms of Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are mainly characterized by an unnecessary worry, distress and tension. This may lead to disturbances in concentration, sleep and regular social and work related functioning. Symptoms vary from person to person and generally develop slowly. The symptoms may be physical or psychological. (1, 2, 3, 4) Primary symptoms The primary symptom is usually […]

Health News

The genetics of side-effects

Henk-Jan Guchelaar knows all too well the serious problems that the side-effects of medication can cause. As a professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, he has spent the last two decades trying to get the link between medicine and our genes recognised more widely. The stories he hears from […]

Health News

Genetics and the COVID-19 pandemic

With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging worldwide, members of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) are working to understand how the virus spreads and infects people, why there is so much variability in susceptibility and severity, and where to look for potential therapeutics. Researchers presented the results of several studies relevant to the current […]

Personal Health

Genetics could explain how traumatic events affect people’s health

Facing the death of a loved one, being given a life-threatening diagnosis, or living through a natural disaster is difficult enough. But those who get through these traumatic life events often face further ill effects. Someone’s chances of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety all increase after being exposed to significant stressors. And […]

Health News

Pluripotency: ‘Butterfly effect’ discovered: Single change at telomeres controls the ability of cells to generate a complete organism

Pluripotent cells can give rise to all cells of the body, a power that researchers are eager to control because it opens the door to regenerative medicine and organ culture for transplants. But pluripotency is still a black box for science, controlled by unknown genetic (expression of genes) and epigenetic signals (biochemical marks that control […]

Health News

New biologically derived metal-organic framework mimics DNA

The field of materials science has become abuzz with “metal-organic frameworks” (MOFs), versatile compounds made up of metal ions connected to organic ligands, thus forming one-, two-, or three-dimensional structures. There is now an ever-growing list of applications for MOF, including separating petrochemicals, detoxing water from heavy metals and fluoride anions, and recovering hydrogen or […]

Health News

Effects on offspring of epigenetic inheritance via sperm

As an organism grows and responds to its environment, genes in its cells are constantly turning on and off, with different patterns of gene expression in different cells. But can changes in gene expression be passed on from parents to their children and subsequent generations? Although indirect evidence for this phenomenon, called “transgenerational epigenetic inheritance,” […]