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.

(Photo credit: Destiny Pharma www.destinypharma.com) 
Researchers at UK’s Destiny Pharma believe they have developed a drug which can destroy the most virulent strains of MRSA.  They are testing the drug code named XF-73 in the hope it can be used in hospitals by 2011.
Study results of the new drug, which is applied as a gel into patients’ noses, showed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA) did not develop resistance to the compound despite being exposed to it 55 times.
Elaine Warburton  www.geneticsandhealth.com

 (Courtesy: BSIP VEM/Science Photo Library) 
Researchers from the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University are suggesting some companies are using misleading claims to push tests that have limited clinical validation — something they say may ultimately hurt the pharmacogenetics field.  They recommend that this type of testing needs more oversight and are calling for more regulation of the pharmacogenetic testing industry.  For example, they noted, the US Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate most laboratory-developed tests, though clinical laboratories are certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA).
In particular, they focused on tests for genetic variants in CYP450 …read more

 
I’ve known UK diagnostics company Lab-21 for some years now. My previous company Opaldia and Lab-21 effectively ‘grew up’ together. 

Amgen Limited UK and Lab21 have announced their partnership to introduce a new genetic therapy test for advanced bowel cancer treatment. Under the terms of the agreement, Lab21 will provide a screening test to indicate which patients are likely to benefit from Amgen’s new drug for advanced bowel cancer Vectibix® (panitumumab).
It is the first time that the European Commission (EU) has licensed a bowel cancer product with the stipulation that a predictive test should be carried out.  This is the start of companion diagnostics. The …read more

(Photo credit: Flu viruses among cilia – National Geographic magazine http://www.nationalgeographic.com/)
US scientists have discovered a possible reason why the flu virus is seasonal and tends to infect people mostly in the winter. It has a jacket that melts in the summer causing the virus to die off, and stays hard in the winter, until it enters a host where it melts and gets to work. The discovery could lead to new ways to prevent and treat the flu.
Neuroscientist Joshua Zimmerberg and colleagues, based at the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics (LCMB) in the National Institute of Child Health and …read more

Further to my various articles on our ancestry, differences in gene expression levels between people of European versus African ancestry appear to affect how each group responds to certain drugs or fights off specific infections, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Expression Research Laboratory at Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, CA.
The researchers used lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from blood from 180 healthy individuals. They studied 60 nuclear families, including mother, father and child. Thirty of the families were Caucasians from Utah and 30 were Yorubans from Ibadan, Nigeria.
Mainly focusing on cancer treatments, the researcher sought to understand …read more

 
Scientists from Newcastle University, UK led by Professor Patrick Chinnery, have created an embryo with three separate parents.  The team believe the technique could help to eradicate a whole class of hereditary diseases, including some forms of epilepsy and ensure women with genetic defects do not pass the diseases on to their children.
Ten severely deformed embryos, left over from traditional fertility treatment were created using DNA from a man and two women in lab tests. Within hours of their creation, the nucleus, containing DNA from the mother and father, was removed from the embryo, and implanted into a donor egg whose DNA had …read more

The EU funded GEN2PHEN project plans to internationally orchestrate the electronic gathering and use of data that show how gene sequences (’genotypes’) contribute to individual differences in disease, drug response, and other characteristics (’phenotypes’). These relationships (usually in the form of “genotype-phenotype” information stored in scattered databases) are deemed to become essential for future prognosis, diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
GEN2PHEN will build a set of database components, tools and technologies that will help all research results pertaining to genome variation and disease to be properly integrated and immediately available for holistic analysis via the internet. The project will deploy a …read more

Yay!  At last common sense prevails!
The UK’s Human Genetics Commission (HGC) has just issued an enormous tome on the subject of genetic testing called ‘More Genes Direct’ (recommended weekend read!)

The report discusses the imminent explosion of genetic testing and the fact there is very little regulation or independent validation about test claims.  The HGC is concerned that in the wrong hands, genetic testing could do more harm than good. This has also been highlighted by the FDA but the FDA has made huge inroads in reviewing, analysing and assessing genetic tests in order to produce gold standard protocols.  This I have discovered first hand …read more

Further to my articles on hospital MRSA ..
A new strain of MRSA called Community Associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) that infects people in the community as opposed to vulnerable and sick people in hospitals, appears to be gaining a foothold because of certain clever tricks the bacteria has learned about the human immune system that it uses to its advantage.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Hamilton, Montana have pinpointed the genes on the CA-MRSA that produce a class of peptides called PSMs.  These PSMs recruit, activate and neutralize human neutrophils (a common type of white blood cell), the main line …read more