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

It’s not too often in genetics that we hear about finding evidence that a gene lowers the risk of disease.
This latest news must have been greeted with cautionary hope at the American Society of Human Genetics meeting in Philadelphia. According to the Scientist, a large-effect allele that provides protection against autism was found on chromosome 5 near the semaphorin 5A (SEMA5A) gene, which is involved in guiding neural axons during development. The same group also found two genes not previously linked to autism, one at the tip of chromosome 20’s short arm, and one at the end of chromosome …read more