news sources

Nature – Genomics
Genomeweb
Genome Canada
The Guardian – Stem Cells
MIT – Biomedecine
Science/AAAS – Genetics
Human Genome Project
HGP – Chromosome Viewer
Genetic Testing Registry
Joint Genome Institute
Center for Genetics and Society
International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG)
Genetic Genealogy Standards
Family Tree DNA Learning Resources
Your Genetic Genealogist – by Ce Ce Moore
Genealem’s Genetic Genealogy – by Emily Aulicino
DNA-eXplained – by Roberta Estes
The Genetic Genealogist – by Blaine Bettinger
Cruwys News – by Debbie Kennett
Kitty Cooper’s blog
Genetic Genealogy Ireland – by Maurice Gleeson
Adoption and DNA – by CeCe Moore
DNAadoption – by Rob Warthen
The Legal Genealogist – by Judy Russell
Segment-ology – by Jim Bartlett
DNA testing combined with FAN & GPS – Elizabeth Shown Mills

genomic privacy

Pentagon warns military members DNA kits pose ‘personal and operational risks’

BY JENNA MCLAUGHLIN AND ZACH DORFMAN YAHOO NEWS EXCLUSIVE The Pentagon is advising members of the military not to use consumer DNA kits, saying the information collected by private companies could pose a security risk, according to a memo co-signed by the Defense Department’s top intelligence official. A growing number of companies like 23andMe and Ancestry sell testing kits that allow buyers to get a DNA profile by sending in a cheek swab or saliva sample.

Cops Now Using Warrants To Gain Access To DNA Services’ Entire Databases

BY TIM CUSHING TECHDIRT Cops have discovered a new source of useful third-party records: DNA databases. Millions of people have voluntarily handed over personal information to a number of services in exchange for info on medical markers or distant family members.

research news

Scientists win historic Nobel chemistry prize for ‘genetic scissors’

BY PAUL RINCON BBC SCIENCE Two scientists have been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the tools to edit DNA. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna are the first two women to share the prize, which honours their work on the technology of genome editing.

Did coronavirus come from a lab?

BY MICHAEL MARSHALL NEWSCIENTIST No, this virus isn’t a bioweapon. New diseases have emerged throughout human history, and we have seen two major coronavirus outbreaks in the last two decades: SARS and MERS.

professional regulation

There Still Aren’t Any Rules Preventing Rogue Scientists From Making Gene-Edited Babies

EMILY MULLIN MEDIUM / ONE-ZERO Around this time last November, Chinese scientist He Jiankui stunned the world when he revealed the birth of the first known gene-edited babies. Working in relative secrecy, he had used CRISPR to modify human embryos in the lab and then established pregnancies with those embryos.

Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

BY FABIAN SCHMIDT DW.COM SCIENCE An attempt to contain the populations of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti in Brazil may have failed. It appears that gene mutations have been transferred to the local population.

emerging technologies

First genetically modified mosquitoes released in the United States

BY EMILY WALTZ NATURE After a decade of fighting for regulatory approval and public acceptance, a biotechnology firm has released genetically engineered mosquitoes into the open air in the United States for the first time. The experiment, launched this week in the Florida Keys — over the objections of some local critics — tests a method for suppressing populations of wild Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which can carry diseases such as Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.

Osaka University transplants iPS cell-based heart cells in world’s first clinical trial

BY JIJI JAPAN TIMES An Osaka University team said it has carried out the world’s first transplant of cardiac muscle cells created from iPS cells in a physician-initiated clinical trial. In the clinical project to verify the safety and efficacy of the therapy using induced pluripotent stem cells, Yoshiki Sawa, a professor in the university’s cardiovascular surgery unit, and colleagues aim to transplant heart muscle cell sheets over the course of three years into 10 patients suffering from serious heart malfunction caused by ischemic cardiomyopathy.

gene patents

Like air and water, DNA should not be patentable

BY ANDRÉ PICARD THE GLOBE AND MAIL ‘Gene patents no longer need to stand in the way of diagnosing life-threatening disease.” That’s how Alex Munter, president and chief executive officer of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, summed up the impact of an out-of-court settlement in the lawsuit CHEO launched against Transgenomic Inc. in 2014. Transgenomic, a biotechnology company based in Omaha, Neb., owns five gene patents related to the potentially deadly heart condition Long QT syndrome.

Genes can’t be patented, rules Australia’s High Court

BY MICHAEL SLEZAK NEWSCIENTIST Your genes are no longer patentable in Australia. The country’s highest court found unanimously that two previous Australian judgments allowing patents of genes were wrong, and they do not constitute a patentable invention.