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 she has had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to mitigate cancer risk.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
Clare Scott, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
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.
Families share genes but that doesn’t mean no individual in a family should be accorded privacy about their genetic tests.
magw21/Flickr
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.
Challenges to the patents for BRCA mutation tests in Australia and the United States resulted in opposing conclusions.
Christiana Care/Flickr
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…
Is cancer just a mathematical game of chance?
stuartpilbrow/Flickr
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…
Mothers with genetic mutations not harmful to females may be passing them onto their sons.
Vincent van der Pas/Flickr (resized)
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…
Angelina Jolie should be seen as a model for seeking information about her options and making a decision that best suited her.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
Clara Gaff, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) e Clare Scott, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
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…
American actress Angelina Jolie has had a double mastectomy because she carries the faulty gene BRCA1.
EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA
Geoff Lindeman, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
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…
Variomics sifts through the complex interplay of 20,000 genes, their variants, environmental influences and epigenetic factors.
-sel/Flickr
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…
After analysing the DNA of six families, researchers have found a genetic mutation linked to fainting. The mutation need…
The BRCA1 gene is thought to account for 45% of hereditary breast cancer, and at least 80% of hereditary cancer involving both breast and ovarian cancers.
Tips Times
“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…
Researchers have found that rare mutations in XRCC2 increase the risk of breast cancer.
Robert S Donovan
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…
A positive result from predictive genetic testing can give rise to mental health issues, such as depression and suicide.
pedro veneroso/Flickr
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…
Professor of Oncology, Head of the RMH Familial Cancer Centre and Joint Head, Breast Cancer Laboratory, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)