Just a short note and congratulations to Dr. Francis Collins for being confirmed as director of the National Institutes of Health.
According to the Associated Press, Collins was confirmed by the US Senate yesterday via voice vote (say “aye” or “nay”), so I’d have to say this was an even easier confirmation than Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who took her oath today from Chief Justice Roberts as the first Hispanic justice of the US Supreme Court after a non-event of hearings.
Collins is a familiar face and name at the NIH, having been one of the prime-movers of the human genome project as …read more

Amelia Earhart may have lived more than 70 years ago, but she still holds as much (if not more) appeal when she died as when she was alive. For starters, she was the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and would have made the longest round-the-world flight had she not crashed somewhere in the Pacific.
Her remains and that of her airplane were never found, although the skeletons of a tall, Caucasian female, some ound in Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) in 1940. Unfortunately the skeletons were misplaced years later, and Amelia Earhart’s disappearance stayed unsolved through much …read more

  After describing himself as an “unemployed geneticist”, Francis Collins now reveals that he has been “working night and day” with the White House transition for health and human services with Tom Daschle.  Now that that’s over, he is ready to discuss the progress that personalized medicine needs for it to move forward in a responsible way.
Francis Collins, the public face of the human genome research and former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, spoke to biomedical researchers, biotech execs and policy people at a meeting in Washington DC organized by the Personalized Medicine Coalition.
"If we’re …read more

With the new administration comes a new NIH Director and the name that has been heard most often is none other than Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

While with the NHGRI, Collins led the Human Genome Project that has become the foundation for almost every mapping project in the field. He also paved the way to have genetic data become open source and freely available to the wider scientific community.
So, is Collins the shoo-in to head the bigger National Institute of Health leadership? When asked, all Collins replied was, “No comment.”
What’s your take? Want Collins …read more

(Image credit: medicineworld.org) 
This week b5 media’s Health and Wellness channel is focusing on celebrities health.  Our focus is not on ‘tittle tattle’  and hot gossip about Angelina, Brad or ’Tomkat’ but rather a serious look at health issues that high profile individuals share with all of us. 
In the genetics world, our ‘celebrities’ are the likes of Craig Venter and James Watson – pioneering geneticists but basking in the eye of the media.
The race to sequence genomes has resulted in some major PR, particularly for Craig and James. 454 is sequencing James Watson’s genome and Craig has announced some of his results in PLoS.  TV …read more

It’s celebrity health week at b5 media’s Health and Wellness channel!
We will be taking a look at health issues which not only affect ourselves but also our celebrities.  Often, a celebrity who is suffering from a health related problem can do so much to support the cause and bring disease warning signs to the attention of the public.  Cancer survivors such as international singers Kylie Minogue, Olivia Newton-John, cyclist Lance Armstrong and singer Sheryl Crowe have all shared their battles with us, to great effect.
Their celebrity status earned through achievements in sports, entertainment, government and the arts brings the spotlight center …read more

Enlarged hearts are found often, but not exclusively, in those who are obese, have diabetes or high blood pressure. People with none of these underlying problems can be affected, as can elite athletes.  For example, a post-mortem diagnosed the problem in Cameroon football midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe, who died in 2003 after collapsing during an international match in France. Elite runner Olympic hopeful Ryan Shay died of complications involving an enlarged heart – the very condition that made him a great runner.
An international  research team headed up by Imperial College, UK say they have for the first time linked enlarged hearts with a gene, …read more

(Image courtesy of CIMA http://www.cima.es/areas1_neuro/areas1_neuro_english.html) 
Data from one of the first genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which focused on Parkinson’s diseases and was funded in part by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), is now being made available to researchers through the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), both of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NHGRI hopes to speed up research by making previously unavailable GWAS data sets publicly available to the research community.
The study, conducted by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in collaboration with scientists at Perlegen …read more

My fellow b5 Science and Health journalist Grace at Kids Health Notes wrote a most interesting article in response to Dr James Watson’s less than helpful comments on intelligence and culture which I have previously alluded to in my article Dr James Watson co-founder of DNA – retires
I would also like to add my opinion on genetics and its impact on individual cultures.  Although we have a fundamental right to freedom of speech, there are boundaries which should not be crossed for fear of causing immense offense. 
I believe cultures evolved and adapted to suit the environment they were inhabiting.  As these cultures migrated and …read more

Dr James Watson, one of the discoverers of the structure of DNA is a man I have admired for many years. Without him and his co-discoverers Dr Rosalind Franklin and Dr James Crick, I and thousands of other genetics fans would not be here today.
Dr Watson has recently come under intense criticism for his somewhat outspoken opinions on inherited intelligence traits shown by differing cultures which he published in his latest book.  He has subsequently apologised for those comments and retired from his Cold Spring Harbor laboratory. A tarnished end to a brilliant career.
Just to say thanks, farewell and enjoy your retirement!
Elaine Warburton