Shirley M. Tilghman, President of Princeton University, and Keith Wailoo, the Townsend Martin Professor of History and Public Affairs, are co-teaching a course called “Modern Genetics and Public Policy for the first time this semester. Together, they possess a wealth of knowledge to explore the topic. Tilghman, a professor of molecular biology, is one of the world’s foremost authorities on genetics; Wailoo draws upon insights gained from his work…
The core premise of the leading model of cancer therapy is that cells become malignant when they develop mutations that make them proliferate uncontrolled. Find a molecule that targets the “driver” mutation, and a pharmaceutical company will have a winner and patients will be cancer-free. In the new study, however, scientists found that despite having identical genetic mutations, colorectal cancer…
Congratulations to ISG faculty Stefan Timmermans and Mara Buchbinder on the publication of their book, “Saving Babies?: The Consequences of Newborn Genetic Screening (Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries)”. Abstract: It has been close to six decades since Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA and more than ten years since the human genome was decoded. Today, through the collection and analysis…
ISG fellow Stefan Timmermans is a contributing scientist on NPR’s “All Things Considered” discussing whole genome sequencing for babies. Parents who have their babies tested are faced with many questions, such as if and when to tell the child that all their genetic information is available or whether they, the parents, want to know all their child’s genetic information themselves. Read/Listen…
Regular old selective breeding can create monsters like the industrial turkey, giant with grotesquely over-sized breasts and muscles. This raises the obvious ethical question: Just because we can breed this turkey, should we? The turkey lives a short, miserable life but we get an affordable, healthy source of protein. It is obvious which choice we’ve made as a society, but…
Robert Cook-Deegan (Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA) and colleagues explain that whole genome analysis has the potential to significantly improve medical care if utilized correctly, but say that interpreting variants of unknown significance can prove challenging. Private genetic databases run by companies, such as Myriad Genetics in the USA, contain important information that may be vital to interpreting such variants, but…