The Indigene Project is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant No. U01HG007654 and is one of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium projects. We thank all team members who worked on the Indigene Project.
A New Kind of Gene-Edited Pig Kidney Was Just Transplanted Into a Person
(MIT Technology Review) – A month ago, Richard Slayman became the first living person to receive a kidney transplant from a gene-edited pig. Now, a team of researchers from NYU Langone Health reports that Lisa Pisano, a 54-year-old woman from … Read More
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She Was Too Sick for a Traditional Transplant. So She Received a Pig Kidney and a Heart Pump
(Associated Press) – Doctors have transplanted a pig kidney into a New Jersey woman who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also stabilized her failing heart. Lisa Pisano’s combination of heart and kidney failure left … Read More
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Restoring Sight Is Possible Now with Optogenetics
(Washington Post via MSN) – Science, a start-up company in Alameda, Calif., has designed a visual prosthesis called the Science Eye which could restore vision, albeit in a limited form, in people with retinitis pigmentosa. Hodak, its CEO, co-founded the … Read More
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Generative A.I. Arrives in the Gene Editing World of CRISPR
(New York Times) – Now, new A.I. technology is generating blueprints for microscopic biological mechanisms that can edit your DNA, pointing to a future when scientists can battle illness and diseases with even greater precision and speed than they can … Read More
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A New Edition of European Journal of Human Genetics Is Now Available
European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 32, no. 4, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Uncertainties Experienced by Parents of Children Diagnosed with severe Combined Immunodeficiency through Newborn Screening” by Melissa Raspa, et al. “Surveillance of multiple … Read More
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A New Edition of Journal of Medical Ethics Is Now Available
Journal of Medical Ethics (vol. 50, no. 4, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Blaming the unvaccinated during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Roles of political Ideology and Risk Perceptions in the USA” by Maja Graso, et al. “Ethical Considerations … Read More
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Medicare Floats Incentive for Hospitals to Offer New Sickle Cell Treatments
(Axios) – Hospitals within months could get extra federal money to administer pricey new gene therapies for sickle cell disease, including the first CRISPR-based treatment. Why it matters: The Medicare proposal would provide more incentive to offer the multimillion-dollar gene … Read More
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How to Supercharge Cancer-Fighting Cells: Give Them Stem Cell Skills
(Nature) – Bioengineered immune cells have been shown to attack and even cure cancer, but they tend to get exhausted if the fight goes on for a long time. Now, two separate research teams have found a way to rejuvenate … Read More
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This Woman Will Decide Which Babies Are Born
(Wired) – God help the babies! Or, absent God, a fertility startup called Orchid. It offers prospective parents a fantastical choice: Have a regular baby or have an Orchid baby. A regular baby might grow up and get cancer. Or … Read More
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These Identical Twins Both Grew Up with Autism, But Took Very Different Paths
(NPR) – Sam and John Fetters, 19, are identical twins at opposite ends of the autism spectrum. Sam is a sophomore at Amherst College who plans to double major in history and political science. In his free time, he runs … Read More
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Scientists Find Genes Can Raise Obesity Risk ‘By Six Times’
(Wales Online via MSN) – Scientists have discovered rare gene differences that could raise the risk of obesity by as much as six times. Led by Medical Research Council (MRC) researchers, the study identified genetic variants in two genes that … Read More
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mRNA Drug Offers Hope for Treating a Devastating Childhood Disease
(Nature) – A drug that uses messenger RNA technology has shown early success in addressing the core deficiency behind a rare genetic disorder. The results have ignited hope that the technology — which first gained attention through its breakthrough use … Read More
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A New Edition of European Journal of Human Genetics Is Now Available
European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 32, no. 3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Gene Selection by incorporating genetic Networks into Case-Control Association Studies” by Xuewei Cao, et al. “Psychological Impact of additional Findings Detected by … Read More
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New Genetic Analysis Tool Tracks Risks Tied to CRISPR Edits
(PhysOrg) – University of California San Diego researchers have developed a new genetic system to test and analyze the underlying mechanisms of CRISPR-based DNA repair outcomes. As described in Nature Communications, Postdoctoral Scholar Zhiqian Li, Professor Ethan Bier and their … Read More
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‘A Chance to Live’: How 2 Families Faced a Catastrophic Birth Defect
(New York Times) – Cases of trisomy 18 may rise as many states restrict abortion. But some women choose to have the babies, love them tenderly and care for them devotedly. In Texas last year, Kate Cox, whose fetus had … Read More
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Overdosing on Chemo: A Common Gene Test Could Save Hundred of Lives Each Year
(KFF Health News) – Rosen was one of more than 275,000 cancer patients in the United States who are infused each year with fluorouracil, known as 5-FU, or, as in Rosen’s case, take a nearly identical drug in pill form … Read More
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DNA Test Says It Can Predict Opioid Addiction Risk. Skeptics Aren’t So Sure.
(Washington Post) – Using a swab inside the cheek and a sophisticated computer algorithm, a DNA test recently approved by federal regulators promisesto assess genetic risk of opioid addiction. The test’s maker says results give doctors and patients a crucial … Read More
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Surgeons Transplant Pig Kidney Into a Patient, a Medical Milestone
(New York Times) – Surgeons in Boston have transplanted a kidney from a genetically engineered pig into an ailing 62-year-old man, the first procedure of its kind. If successful, the breakthrough offers hope to hundreds of thousands of Americans whose … Read More
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(CNN) – A new gene therapy for the fatal genetic disorder metachromatic leukodystrophy, or MLD, will carry a wholesale price of $4.25 million, its manufacturer announced Wednesday, making it the world’s most expensive medicine. Lenmeldy was approved by the US … Read More
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DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest
(The Atlantic) – Widespread genetic testing is uncovering case after secret case of children born to close biological relatives—providing an unprecedented accounting of incest in modern society. The geneticist Jim Wilson, at the University of Edinburgh, was shocked by the … Read More
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A New Strategy to Attack Aggressive Brain Cancer Shrank Tumors in Two Early Tests
(ABC News) – A new strategy to fight an extremely aggressive type of brain tumor showed promise in a pair of experiments with a handful of patients. Scientists took patients’ own immune cells and turned them into “living drugs” able … Read More
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Doctors Can Now Edit the Genes Inside Your Body
(Wall Street Journal) – It sounds like science fiction, but Odunsi is among dozens of people participating in studies on a controversial new forefront of the gene-editing revolution. Regulators last year approved the world’s first medicine using Crispr, the Nobel … Read More
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The DNA Scandal That Threatens Thousands of Criminal Cases
(Wall Street Journal) – For nearly three decades, Yvonne “Missy” Woods was Colorado’s star forensic scientist, relied on by police and prosecutors to test DNA evidence in the state’s most baffling crimes. Her work was considered the gold standard by … Read More
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One Twin Was Hurt, the Other Was Not. Their Adult Mental Health Diverged.
(New York Times) – Why do twins, who share so many genetic and environmental inputs, diverge as adults in their experience of mental illness? On Wednesday, a team of researchers from the University of Iceland and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden … Read More
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(Aeon) – Good Chemistry takes viewers behind the scenes and beyond the headlines of the CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough. Centred on the work of the French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier and the US biochemist Jennifer Doudna, who together became the first all-female … Read More
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