Gene therapy is allowing us to switch on natural beneficial mutations to counteract the effects of negative mutations in diseases such as sickle cell anaemia.
Jolie Pitt has announced more surgery, this time to mitigate her risk of developing ovarian cancer. But this should ideally not have the same “Jolie effect” as her last operation.
When a family member dies from a disease caused by a genetic mutation, doctors have to decide whether to share the deceased person’s test results with the rest of the family.
Recent cases in Australia and the United States and a new case in Canada show how controversial the subject of gene patents is. But technological advances and the cost of patenting may soon mean gene patents…
What causes cancer? This deceptively simple question has a devilishly complex answer. So when US researchers proposed a relatively simple mathematical formula to explain a long-standing conundrum in cancer…
Personalised medicine is the ability to tailor therapy to an individual patient so that, as it’s often put, the right treatment is given to the right patient at the right time. But just how personal is…
Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, because girls need more extreme genetic mutations to develop them, according to a study published in the American…
Following Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie’s revelation last week that she’d undergone a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer, it has emerged that a 53-year-old man had his prostate removed after…
Clara Gaff, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute y Clare Scott, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
Angelina Jolie’s recent announcement about her double mastectomy likely caused many women to think about their own chance of developing breast cancer. But before you rush off to have a bunch of possibly…
Actress Angelina Jolie’s op-ed in the New York Times explained that she opted to have a double mastectomy because she carries the hereditary BRCA1 gene, which she says increases her risk of breast cancer…
Announcing the completion of the first draft of the human genome in 2000, then-US president Bill Clinton spelt out what this monumental achievement would mean for humankind, “With this profound new knowledge…
“The issue that arises in this case is of considerable importance. It relates to the patentability of genes, or gene sequences, and the practice of gene patenting”. So began the reasons for judgement of…
We all know about the reproductive “biological clock” in women reminding them of the finite time in which they can have children. Now researchers have found evidence that men also have a reproductive “best…
You’ve probably heard of BRCA1 and BRCA2 – the genes that, when mutated, markedly increase the risk of developing breast cancer. We’ve also known for a while that a handful of other genes also increase…
Genetic mutations are the cause of many incurable diseases and we now have tests to predict the likelihood of people developing inherited diseases. But predictive genetic tests for neurodegenerative diseases…