People outside the United Kingdom may not be familiar with Chris Woodhead, but he was the Chief Inspector of Schools in the UK who reported in 195 that some 15,000 UK teachers were incompetent and should be replaced.
Five years after, Woodhead resigned from his position after he had several altercations with the then Secretary of Education. Almost ten years later, Woodhead is stirring up new controversies in The Guardian interview and in his book “The Desolations of Learning”.
Woodland says that children have differing abilities that the current British school system do not take into account when putting children together in …read more

In recent years, more and more genetic tests and therapies have become available for patients, physicians and the interested individual. But how does one know which tests to take or are appropriate for one’s condition? And what do we do after we have the test results on our hands? Can our physician help us?
This March, the Genomic Medicine Institute was launched at El Camino Hospital in Monterey, California in response to the emerging opportunities and challenges that the genomic era has introduced. El Camino partnered with DNA Direct to become the first community hospital to integrate genomic medical services into …read more

Competition is certainly good for us. One by one, the big league universities in the Boston neighborhood are going OPEN ACCESS.
Open access publishing means that research works can be read (online) and used freely by the public without paying subscription fees to journals and publishers. I know personally how expensive it is to subscribe to just one journal, and the information from abstracts are really so limited that having more open access journals is just good for the science.
Last January, the University of California and publication giant Springer agreed to have articles written …read more

Complete Genomics launched this week with an announcement to provide a person’s entire genetic sequence for $5,000 each.
The company’s ultimate goal is to sequence 1 million complete genomes, or 1,000 people each in 1,000 disease studies, in the hopes of revealing the genetic basis behind major human diseases. From a scientist’s point of view, this is exactly the data and perhaps sample size we need to study the role of genetics on development and cause of disease. It would be a nightmare to analyze, but it won’t be for lack of data, if the sequence will be made available …read more

Thank you to Alyssa Friedland  from Genetic Alliance for this press release – a momentous occasion in the field of genetics.  I have decided to issue the press release in its entire form.  You may think me biased but the arguments put forward in the statement are cogent, well thought out and they echo my own opinions.
What we need to do now is ensure that we take a responsible approach to this legislation and continue to ensure that the field of genetics is introduced into mainstream medicine ethically and to the highest clinical standards.
Elaine Warburton   www.geneticsandhealth.com
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President Bush Signs Landmark Genetic Nondiscrimination …read more

Following my recent article on ethical guidelines for informed consent in genomic studies, a group of scientists met at the Translating ESLI conference in Cleveland to debate this whole ethical argument. This issue is particularly critical for genome-wide association studies and in establishing and using large biobanks.
It was universally acknowledged that consent forms are difficult to read for participants who do not have reading skills beyond middle school or high school, for example. As a result, these paticipants may be unaware of what exactly the research could mean to them.
Laura Beskow, a researcher at Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy worked …read more

 
The Washington Post featured a series of thought-provoking articles in ‘The Science Century’ section of the newspaper. 
Here are some of my favourites:
The Post’s Joel Achenbach writes about how “the most important things
happening in the world today…[will] be happening in laboratories — out
of sight, inscrutable and unhyped until the very moment when they change
life as we know it.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041103328.html
Ronald M. Green, the author of “Babies by Design: The Ethics of Genetic
Choice,” asks, “Why should we think that the human genome is a
once-and-for-all-finished, untamperable product? All of the biblically
derived faiths permit human beings to improve on nature using technology,
from agriculture to aviation. Why …read more

G&H’s INTERVIEW WITH NAVIGENICS
Navigenics approached Genetics and Health for an interview. With so much written about similar genomics companies such as 23andme, Knome, deCODE genetics, I was intrigued to learn more about this company.  In particular, Navigenics appears to be the only company within this industry genre who provides a comprehensive wellness model – a healthcare model that Opaldia, the genetic screening and health surveillance company I founded, endorsed whole-heartedly. 
I interviewed Navigenics’ Medical Director Dr Michael A Nierenberg MD, clinical professor of medicine, emeritus at Stanford University to find out what makes Navigenics stand out amongst its competition.  He was …read more

Concluding G&H’s exclusive interview with Navigenics’ Medical Director Dr Michael Nierenberg, we explore the challenges faced by Navigenics to integrate its genomic services into mainstream medicine … 

When founding my old company Opaldia, probably the single most challenging aspect of early adoption of genetic testing was physician barriers.  Mostly this was borne out of a genuine lack of understanding about the field of genetics but also concerns that testing was too much in its infancy and tests had not been subject to rigorous clinical evaluation.  Time and again the phrase ‘not undergone prospective trials’ was used as a defense against bringing genetic testing into …read more

Continuing G&H’s exclusive interview with Navigenics’ Medical Director Dr Michael Nierenberg, we explore the whole issue of privacy, insurance, GINA and ethics…..
One of the main consumer concerns is that of privacy of information, both in terms that a genetic test has been undertaken but also that the results of the test are kept private and out of the public domain.  At the time of writing, the controversial GINA (Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act) is being passed by the US Senate which will enable genetic testing information to be kept private and not be used to discriminate against an individual, particularly by the insurance industry.  …read more