I had intended to discuss President Obama’s plans for personalized precision medicine with my patient Barbara last week, but she missed her appointment. Or, more accurately, she arrived two hours late, made the usual giant fuss at the reception desk and had to be rescheduled. I was … [More]

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S new budget is expected to include hundreds of millions of dollars for so-called precision medicine. The initiative, which he introduced last week in his State of the Union address, has bipartisan support and is a bright spot in the otherwise tight funding environment for me… [More]

  Most siblings with a diagnosis of autism do not share the same genetic risk factors for the disorder and are as distinct in their behaviors as any brothers and sisters, scientists reported on Monday in a study that came as a surprise to many doctors, if not to parents. Scientists analyzed… [More]

  Experts are warning Australians to be extremely careful when ordering genetic tests online, saying the tests may not meet Australian quality and reliability standards. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has released new advice for consumers, after genetic tests have … [More]

  A BOOK claiming genetics lies behind the emergence of ­Europe and parts of Asia as economic powerhouses has been criticised by scientists. A Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade, a New York Times science writer for 30 years, says that since the sequencing of the human genom… [More]

  Last November, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a “cease and desist” order to 23andMe, a major purveyor of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing. In its letter to the company—issued after three prior warnings—the FDA reiterated its view that 23andM… [More]

  Living in the Southeast is bad for your health. There is a huge range in the death rates across American states, driven by public policy, regional habits and socioeconomics, Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday. “Your longevity and he… [More]

A bid to save a young giraffe from destruction at Copenhagen Zoo has failed, and the giraffe was put down on Sunday morning. Thousands of people had signed an online petition appealing for a change of heart over the two-year-old called Marius. The zoo said it had no choice because of its duty to… [More]

If you want a look at a high-profile field dealing with a lot of humbling snags, peer into #ASHG2013, the Twitter hashtag for last week’s meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, held in Boston. You will see successes, to be sure: Geneticists are sequencing and analyzing genomes … [More]

Advancements in medical genetics have challenged the long-standing relationship between science and religion. Both genetics and religion can affect notions of family and parenthood, appreciation of diversity and equality, conceptualization of health and disease, and personal identity.  To… [More]