Persistence really pays off, and this is especially true in genetic studies. After 35 years of combined research, a father-and-son team has finally identified the source of the gene that causes the heart’s electricity to go awry.
For three hundred years, a South African family has been plagued by progressive familial heart block, a disease of the electrical system of the heart. The disease causes an affected person to have irregular heart beats, fainting spells, seizures or sudden death. The risk is greatest soon after birth, during puberty and early twenties and returns in the middle age, and a …read more

Thirteen years and US $10 billion later, the first of several human genomes were completely sequenced in 2003 in what is now known as The Human Genome Project. From then on, scientists dreamed of and aimed to get the cost of DNA sequencing down to $1,000 per person.
Although the running cost was around $250,000 per genome last year, well, that’s still thousands more expensive than most people can afford. No wonder only seven people have had their DNA fully sequenced!
But that could all change from now on. A whole genome has been sequenced for only $50,000. Stanford …read more

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

It looks like Proctor & Gamble scientists have just discovered the secret to youthful skin: it’s in 1,500 genes.
Using data from the Human Genome Project, P&G scientists identified some 1,500 genes that are responsible for how skin ages. Of those, up to 700 genes control how skin collects and retains moisture.
According to an article in the Daily Mail, there are separate ways that skin ages, and each of these are controlled by their own set of genes:

Collagen (the protein that gives skin its structure and strength) degrades.
Skin loses its ability to keep it hydrated.
Fewer skin cells are produced with time.
Wrinkles …read more

Francis Collins, one of the major players who cracked the genetic code, is in final talks for taking the helm of the National Institutes of Health, reports the Bloomberg News.
As director of the National Human Genome Research Institutes (NHGRI) for 15 years, Collins spearheaded efforts to map the human genetic code. With a lot of help from J. Craig Venter at Celera, the project was completed ahead of schedule in 2003, and opened up a plethora of applications and implications for research into our genetic blueprint.
Collins resigned from the NHGRI position last year, in his own words, …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

This Thursday, March 30, 2006, Dr. Francis Collins of the Human Genome Project will be giving a free public talk at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He promises that it won’t be a lecture just for the “science nerds”.
Here’s an excerpt from an informative telephone interview with Dr. Collins:
Q. The human genome project is difficult to grasp. How do you explain it to people?
A. I think it’s a pretty good metaphor to think of it as an instruction book. It’s a very large instruction. It has 3 billion letters in its instruction set.
If you printed those out …read more