February 4, 2013
A study published recently in Science by Susanne Horn and colleagues is a noteworthy example of hypothesis-driven science done right. It exemplifies how seemingly obscure findings can lead to new hypotheses and provide insight into human health and disease. Horn and her colleagues studied a family prone to [...]
October 12, 2012
Dave Hinds is a Principal Scientist in Statistical Genetics. 23andMe is passionate about research on a group of rare blood disorders called myeloproliferative neoplasms, or MPNs. Physicians who study these disorders consider them to be blood cancers, though individual prognoses can vary widely — some [...]
August 6, 2012
Changes in DNA Underlie Cancer Cancer develops when normal cells in the body grow and reproduce uncontrollably because of “mistakes” in the DNA code. DNA (a copy of which is contained in each cell) contains finely tuned instructions for cell growth and production, but as cells copy and pass on this DNA [...]
July 25, 2012
Each person who has joined 23andMe’s Sarcoma research community has their own reasons for participating, but they all share the same hopes that we have — to find the causes for sarcoma and new treatments for this rare cancer. Earlier this month, 23andMe took an important step in that direction when we [...]
May 29, 2012
By Meghan Mullins Before joining 23andMe, I worked at a more traditional genetic research lab. Like virtually all research centers, we didn’t return genetic results to our research participants. I occasionally thought about what that meant, that I knew more about an anonymous stranger’s DNA than he [...]
May 21, 2012
23andMe is passionate about fighting cancer. We’re researching specific forms of cancer and treatments (see sidebar) and also learning more generally about cancer through our Cancer Family History survey (men’s version and women’s version). Personal experiences have the potential to fuel important [...]
April 12, 2012
The term “sarcoma” encompasses over a hundred forms of rare cancers, and the cause behind many of these forms is unknown. Ewing sarcoma, however, is one sarcoma for which the biology is relatively well understood. This form is caused by a gene fusion -- a DNA rearrangement resulting in two genes being [...]
March 12, 2012
On a recent visit to 23andMe George Demetri —a physician and scientist who is an unpaid advisor to our Sarcoma research initiative — sat down for a short interview after talking to our team. Demetri, who is also director of the Dana-Farber Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology, said he has a lot to be [...]
December 5, 2011
It’s hard to picture a more “personalized” approach to medicine than Dr. Ronald Levy’s. Levy, chief of the oncology division at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, has spent his career finding ways to induce a person’s own immune system to fight cancer, specifically lymphoma. Levy will [...]
October 10, 2011
With Kim Barnholt From the minute it became clear that Adam had cancer, he became a statistic, a diagnosis, a “case study”. One of the statistics he made sure to read up on were his chances of surviving. The odds -- 50/50 -- didn’t seem fair in the context of his life, but his friend Kyle put it into [...]
