January 15, 2013
Some of the more common thiopurine drugs: 6-Thioguanine (Lanvis®) 6-Mercaptopurine (Purinethol®) Azathioprine (Azasan®, Imuran®) You may lack the enzyme thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) and not even know it. For most of those who lack the enzyme, it will never be a problem, but, for those who are [...]
November 28, 2012
Earlier this month Public Health Genomics published a paper by a team of Swiss researchers that reinforces the growing body of work showing consumers’ positive experiences with personal genetic testing. In this study, the participants were life science students at the University of Zurich who purchased the [...]
November 26, 2012
The story first broke in the summer of 2012 — two separate research groups, one from the University of Washington and the other from Stanford, announced within weeks of each other that they had successfully sequenced a human fetus and done so noninvasively. Scientist Jacob O Kitzman, who led the [...]
November 15, 2012
You’d be forgiven for assuming your height has nothing to do with the curl of your hair or how flexible you are, but physical traits can sometimes have unexpected connections. Last week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in San Francisco, 23andMe’s Principal Scientist and [...]
October 24, 2012
This past summer researchers announced they’d discovered a rare genetic variant that may be protective against Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is an important topic among 23andMe customers so naturally they asked for more information about the variant. After a review of the research, we recently [...]
October 2, 2012
A study in the journal Lancet regarding a new blood thinning drug brings to mind the difficulty doctors and patients have in using anticoagulants to prevent clots that could otherwise lead to heart attacks or strokes. The mostly commonly used blood thinner, warfarin (Coumadin®) has proven to be a godsend [...]
September 28, 2012
September is Menopause Awareness Month. It’s important for postmenopausal women to be aware of their increased risk for a variety of health conditions including iron overload in those with hereditary hemochromatosis. Hereditary hemochromatosis is a common genetic condition that makes a person more prone [...]
September 27, 2012
For a long time prospective fathers could wile away the years without much worry about when to have kids, while prospective moms were constantly checking their ticking biological clocks.A recent study may turn the tables a bit, pushing men to think a little more about how long they wait to start a [...]
September 21, 2012
In honor of World Alzheimer’s Day, we’re linking to a few posts and stories about the disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and affects more than 35 million people worldwide. 23andMe first began allowing customers to learn about their genetic risk for late-onset [...]
September 13, 2012
A study published in March in the journal PLoS ONE suggests that having more African ancestry is associated with higher risk for type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in the United States, affecting about 26 million people and more than 25% of the population over the [...]
