By Clare Wilson Breast cancer may not be linked to heavy drinkingKlaus Vedfelt/Getty Could the health risks from booze be overblown? A new study has found that low levels of alcohol do not cause cancer, and even heavy drinking doesn’t cause breast cancer – contrary to official UK warnings. The question of how much alcohol… Read More »
Volunteers will be sought at a blood pressure clinicMatthew Horwood/Getty By Adam Vaughan A hundred people undergoing treatment at a UK hospital are to get their DNA analysed in a pioneering trial. Around 85,000 people with rare disorders in the UK have already had their genomes sequenced through the National Health Service as part of the… Read More »
Pinnacle Ventures has launched a pharmacogenomics programme to enable genetic testing to drive personalised prescribing decisions. The innovation arm of Pinnacle Midlands Health Network, a not-for-profit primary health care management company in New Zealand, is also working on embedding biomarker information into electronic health records and linking it to a clinical-decision support prescribing tool that… Read More »
By analyzing millions of DNA variations in the human genome, researchers have developed a “polygenic score” for obesity, a quantitative tool that predicts an individual’s inherited risk for becoming overweight. The researchers found that a genetic predisposition to obesity begins to appear in early childhood and is often clearly evident by early adulthood — suggesting… Read More »
A genetic variant found only in people of African descent significantly increases a smoker’s preference for cigarettes containing menthol, a flavor additive. The variant of the MRGPRX4 gene is five to eight times more frequent among smokers who use menthol cigarettes than other smokers, according to an international group of researchers supported by the U.S.… Read More »
Hundreds of new genes linked to blindness and other vision disorders have been identified in a screen of mouse strains. Many of these genes are likely important in human vision and the results could help identify new causes of hereditary blindness in patients. The work is published Dec. 21 in Nature Communications Biology. “This is… Read More »