May 10, 2010
The author during her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya. As a Peace Corps volunteer teaching in Kenya 25 years ago, I was fascinated by the cultural, linguistic, and physical differences among the people of eastern Africa. One of our Kenyan trainers took us to a "boma" where his tall, [...]
March 31, 2010
Each year at least 350 million people around the world are infected by malaria parasites. More than one million people, mainly young children, succumb to the disease. But these numbers would be even higher if it weren’t for genetic adaptations that have evolved in populations living in areas where [...]
January 11, 2010
As shown in these ancestry paintings from 23andMe, the proportion of African DNA can vary widely for African Americans. A recent study led by Carlos Bustamante of Cornell and Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania has shown that genetically speaking, African American can mean a lot of different [...]
September 30, 2009
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which can appear as either ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, damages the lining of the digestive tract and leads to abdominal cramps, incomplete digestion and nutritional deficiencies. Previous research on IBD gave researchers reason to suspect that the CD39 gene, [...]
September 1, 2009
Although environment plays a major part in addiction — you can't get hooked on something you've never tried — genetics plays a substantial role in determining whether a person who does use a drug will become addicted to it. A few DNA variations have been identified that seem to increase the odds a [...]
August 13, 2009
SNPwatch gives you the latest news about research linking various traits and conditions to individual genetic variations. These studies are exciting because they offer a glimpse into how genetics may affect our bodies and health; but in most cases, more work is needed before this research can provide [...]
June 12, 2009
SNPwatch gives you the latest news about research linking various traits and conditions to individual genetic variations. These studies are exciting because they offer a glimpse into how genetics may affect our bodies and health; but in most cases, more work is needed before this research can provide [...]
May 14, 2009
Mexican flu virus genetics has been much in news lately; how about a look at Mexican human genetics for a change? A new article from researchers at Mexico's National Institute for Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN) examines genetic diversity across the nation, and argues that, in order to conduct studies of common [...]
August 4, 2008
This guest post is by Brenna Henn, a doctoral student in Stanford University's Department of Anthropology and a 23andMe consultant. Brenna studies human evolution using genetic information. Her interests include the origin of modern humans, migration patterns among African groups, and genetic models of [...]
