Welcome to the new year and the first edition of Genetics and Health for 2009. Let’s get down to business and talk shop.
The first genome wide association study of ADHD was published this week. Led by Stephen V. Faraone, the International ADHD Multicenter Genetics (IMAGE) project found one genetic marker (out of 600K) may be association with the ADHD symptoms. As usually is the case, there may other genes involved in ADHD but these have small effects that can not be seen with GWAS, the study suggests.
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“Researchers have identified nine genes that might make people more likely …read more

This week’s Genetics and Health featured blog is Fight Pompe! by new b5media blogger, Juan Magdaraog, who co-writes The After Mac. Juan has been documenting his life with Pompe disease, a metabolic disorder that is caused by a deficiency in alpha-glucosidase.
Pompe disease is a rare genetic disorder causes “progressive muscle weakness throughout the body and affects various body tissues, particularly in the heart, skeletal muscles, liver, and nervous system.” When both parents are carriers of the recessive disease allele, based on autosomal inheritance, their children have a 1 in 4 chance of having Pompe disease.
Juan first …read more