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Articles on Genetic screening

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More than 200 gene variants have been linked to outstanding sporting performance and this number could increase as we continue to research the link between genetics and athlete performance. Lukas Coch/AAP

Will the genetic screening of athletes change sport as we know it?

Genetic testing could help us build targeted and effective training routines for athletes, but the emerging science could also introduce opportunity for discrimination in the sporting world.
Does a good marriage depend on having the right genes? Tiffany Bryant/Shutterstock.com

How your genes could affect the quality of your marriage

Will your marriage be better if you and your partner are genetically compatible? Is there any evidence that certain genes make someone a better or worse partner? And if so, which genes should we test?
Modern citizenship in the West increasingly involves a duty to care for ourselves — to eat healthily, exercise enough and even screen ourselves for disease — to minimize our health-care costs to the state. (Shutterstock)

Made health resolutions for 2020? You might not be living a free life

Are your new diet, exercise, meditation and self-care resolutions for 2020 really a personal choice? Or are you a model western “biocitizen,” living a life of unfreedom?
Couples who are carriers of genes for recessive diseases don’t show any symptoms. Photo by Drew Hays on Unsplash

What prospective parents need to know about gene tests such as ‘prepair’

Cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy and fragile X syndrome are serious diseases, and most couples carrying the genetic mutations for these don’t know it. Should they all be tested?
Pipette tips with reaction mixture to amplify DNA. anyaivanova/www.shutterstock.com

Should we edit out genetic disease?

It seems like a no brainer to edit out genetic disease…until we pause to consider what would be lost.
Families share genes but that doesn’t mean no individual in a family should be accorded privacy about their genetic tests. magw21/Flickr

Should doctors share gene tests after a death in the family?

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.
For the most part, pregnant women wish to remain pregnant – no matter how they came to be so. Jerry Lai/Flickr

Why should we offer screening for Down syndrome anyway?

The details of a surrogacy case involving an Australian couple commissioning a pregnancy in Thailand have created outrage in all sorts of quarters. But the father’s admission that he would have asked the…
Time to unlock intelligence potential.

Genetic screening to enhance IQ should be embraced

There could be a way of predicting – and preventing – which children will go on to have low intelligence, according to the findings of a study researchers at Cardiff University presented on Monday. They…
Before the technology can used more widely, we need to ensure its use will bring improvements in health, quality and duration of life. Image from shutterstock.com

Cheap genome tests to predict future illness? Don’t hold your breath

Sydney’s Garvan Institute is this week promoting its acquisition of an Illumina machine which it says can sequence the whole human genome for $1,000. The institute hopes genomic sequencing will become…
Some babies more at risk from genetic defects from first cousin marriages. Flickr/Tella Chhe

First cousin marriage doubles risk of birth defects in children

Having a baby with a first cousin more than doubles the risk of congenital problems such as heart and lung defects, cleft palettes and extra fingers, according to the largest study of its kind in the UK…
Angelina Jolie has a double mastectomy after discovering she carried a mutation of the BRAC1 gene. Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Supreme Court BRCA patenting decision: experts respond

Millions of women in the US will have access to affordable genetic screening for cancer after the US Supreme Court ruled that a commercial company cannot patent human genes. The screening tests for mutations…
The drugs don’t work. But a swifter way of identifying bacteria could reduce the need for antibiotics. AAP

Teasing out harmful bacterial genes to reduce resistance to antibiotics

Researchers have taken the first step towards designing a rapid way of identifying harmful bacteria in infections, demonstrating the potential for faster patient treatment and decreased reliance on antibiotics…
Depending on the condition a couple risk passing to their child, testing can be offered as carrier screening. Shirl/Flickr

What’s the genetic disease risk for children of related couples?

Marriages between people who are related is more common than you might think. Unlike what many people think, their offspring are not doomed to birth defects or medical problems. In fact, unless they both…
Genetic testing can render perfectly healthy people into the “worried well.” Thomas Hawk

How genetic testing is swelling the ranks of the ‘worried well’

OVER-DIAGNOSIS EPIDEMIC – Today Jacqueline Savard talks about the growing prevalence of genetic testing and what impact they have on over-diagnosis. Genetic testing and screening is increasingly becoming…

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