Gene therapy targets sickle-cell disease – Nature

Image credit: Steve Babuljak/UCSF

Gene therapy might offer a cure for sickle-cell disease, and clinical trials are already under way. The approach is promising because just a single gene needs correcting: the one for the β-globin subunit of haemoglobin, the body’s oxygen ferry. But Elliott Vichinsky is concerned that the same problems that make current sickle-cell care ineffective will also plague this gene-therapy treatment. He estimates that at least 30% of his adult patients with sickle-cell disease die from preventable causes. As his patients attest, sickle-cell care is often inadequate for reasons that have little to do with scientific advancement and lots to do with economics and racism.

 

The automatic-design tools that are changing synthetic biology – Nature

Illustration by The Project Twins

Computerized genetic-design tools automate the process by which researchers design complex genetic circuits that can program cells — especially bacteria and yeast — to carry out specific actions, such as activating a particular enzyme or churning out a certain protein. Synthetic biologists have used single-celled organisms in this way to produce drugs, biological sensors that include cells or antibodies, enzymes for use in industry, and more.

Blockchains Won’t Fix the Problem with Genomics – NeoLife

Illustration by Igor Bastidas

This is shaping up to be the year of DNA for cryptocurrency. One startup after another is offering to pay you in bitcoin-like tokens for sharing your genetic data.

But it’s hard to see how using blockchains and cryptocurrencies will substantially increase demand for genome sequencing. That’s a vexing problem because too few genomes have been sequenced and analyzed to generate as many meaningful insights as scientists had hoped.

Read the full story in NeoLife.

New method taps family trees for clues about conditions – Spectrum

Genetic puzzle: A new approach for finding risk variants considers data from multiple generations of a family. Hero Images/Getty Images

Asking participants in genetic databases about their family’s medical history can help researchers uncover genetic variants tied to uncommon conditions. Because people share 50 percent of their DNA with each of their parents, siblings and children, the DNA of the participants holds clues to the conditions of these relatives.

Read the full story in Spectrum.

Tasmanian devils show signs of resistance to devastating facial cancer – Nature

Jason Reed/Reuters

A contagious facial cancer that is almost always fatal has cut a wide swathe through the population of Tasmanian devils since 1996. The disease has reduced the devil population by 80%, and researchers have predicted that the cancer will drive the animals to extinction within decades. But a study published on 30 August in Nature Communications offers hope. Researchers have found that Tasmanian devils have developed some genetic resistance to the disease in just four to six generations.

Scientists track last 2,000 years of British evolution

Kurt Hutton/Getty Images

Humans may be members of an advanced species, but we haven’t stopped evolving. Over the past 2,000 years, British people have adapted to become taller and blonder, more likely to have blue eyes and better able to digest milk, according to researchers who have developed a technique to track very recent changes in the human genome.

Read the full story in Nature.

Tooth plaque may hold clues about ancient life – National Geographic

Image credit: Dr. Christina Warinner

A nuisance to dentists is now a boon for archaeologists. Researchers have successfully sequenced DNA from fossilized plaque on 700-year-old teeth.

Solidified plaque—called calculus, tartar, or that chalky stuff the dentist scrapes off—contains a whopping 25 times more DNA than ancient tooth or bone.

Read the full article in National Geographic.

Short-lived fish hints at genetic secrets of longevity

Image credit: Leibniz Institute on Aging

A fish with the briefest of lifespans may just end up teaching us how to live longer. Inhibiting the effects of certain genes turns out to lengthen their lifespan by as much as 15 per cent.

Read the full article in New Scientist.

One man’s race to edit muscular dystrophy gene for friend’s son

Image credit: Kerry Rosenfeld

The clock is ticking for Ronald Cohn. He wants to use CRISPR gene editing to correct the genes of his friend’s 13-year-old son.

Read the full article in New Scientist.

First trial of gene-editing treatment for haemophilia

Image credit: James St. John/CC BY 2.0

The first attempt to edit the genes of cells inside the human body is about to take place. The technique being trialled aims to cure haemophilia B, a clotting disorder that can result in spontaneous internal bleeding.

The trial was announced in Washington DC this week at the International Summit on Human Gene Editing.

Read the full article in New Scientist.