The federal court stepped in to ban the genetically modified alfalfa produced by Monsanto Co., pending a thorough review of the crop’s impact on the environment.
The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday leaves Creve Coeur-based Monsanto with two options. It can appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court or hope for regulatory approval after the Agriculture Department completes a comprehensive environmental review. (stltoday.com)
Environmental groups and alfalfa-seed farmers sued the government in 2007 over its decision to release GM alfalfa without reviewing how the crop can potentially affect the environment. According to this news, …read more

Next-generation technologies are exploding so rapidly in genomics and personalized medicine that the NIH want to help jump-start experiments that will answer some of the bioethical concerns that rose along with the era.
More than 200 grants could receive up to $1 million each from the stimulus funds that were earmarked for the National Institutes of Health’ Challenge Grants program.
Ten bioethics-focused programs address issues relating to the commerce of direct-to-consumer genetic tests; ethical issue posed by nanomedicine, tissue engineering and similar emerging technologies; and informed consent issues as medical records become electronic.
Genomics becomes an even hotter topic as the NIH requests …read more

I got this off Senator John McCain’s Twitter (yes, he now tweets). Over the last few days, the Arizona lawmaker has been tweeting his version of “The Top Porkiest Projects” in the Omnibus spending bill.
Here are science/genetics projects that Sen. McCain consider earmarks or pork-barrel:

“$819, 000 for catfish genetics research in Alabama”
“$1,427,250 for genetic improvements of switchgrass – I thought switchgrass genes were pretty good already, guess I was wrong.”
“$1 million for mormon cricket control in Utah – is that the species of cricket or a game played by the brits?”
“$650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and …read more

I don’t know about the people working at the NIH, but I was giddy about the NIH funding from Obama’s stimulus plan. Anyone who has worked at the institute knows how each dollar from the taxpayers is stretched to accomplish lofty goals for better health and innovative research.
So it’s no surprise that the $10.4 billion funding is met with anticipation and excitement, and questions about how exactly will the funds be disbursed. Acting Director Raynard Kington answered that question in a statement this week –

NIH will fund applications that are already on hand and expected to make progress …read more

The current Obama administration is putting plenty of attention on HEALTH, and I’m not talking about health care and insurance, although hopefully we’ll have good news on those fronts in the next four years. What I’m talking about are money and heads of offices – two factors that dictate how U.S. research in genetics and health will be conducted and approached in the next four years.
This week, when President Obama signed the Economic Recovery Act, the NIH got $10 billion in funds for research, medical education and patient care. Another $19 billion went to a health information technology initiative …read more

Just these past weeks I read about three articles about misconduct of postdoctoral fellows and research scientists.
The first was from a UCLA professor who falsified data on cancer treatment research, and used the data for grants and a publication. In 2005, Mai Nguyen was barred from conducting research for three years, but she has since published 10 articles under her married name, and continues to teach at UCLA.
The second misconduct came from a UCSF postdoctoral fellow who changed her own data files (36 files!) and changed images from another researcher’s experiments. None of Nima Afshar’s results were published anywhere, …read more

The new US Congress is quite busy this week with our (hopeful) economic package and new laws that need voting. Amendments are being changed left and right, but there are several laws that scientists might take particular interest in.
 
Senate passed an amendment increasing National Institutes of Health funds by additional $6.5 billion, on top of the $3.5 billion already included in the bill. What this means for the NIH: more opportunities for research, funding for grants, and new jobs created for scientists and staff.
The House re-opened the debate limiting the open-access policy of the NIH. The current NIH …read more

  Now that accessing your genetic information is cheaper than buying a Google Smartphone, now what? What can you get from it? How can you use it? Just as important, but less asked – how do you protect it?
The journal "Nature" joins the debate with a full online issue devoted to the personal genome revolution and its implications. For a fee or for free, you can squeeze more information out of the SNP data or full sequence you got from the commercial genome services you paid for initially. For example, you can get an idea of your risk for …read more

With all the growing excitement, hype and inquiry surrounding personal genome testing, I was wondering when the National Institute of Health would join the fun.
With a $600,000 grant from the NHRGI, the Genetics and Public Policy Center of Johns Hopkins will begin conducting studies to understand the new direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry. And it’s about time.

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