Category Archives: Genetics

A Legal and Scientific Issue with HIV ‘Fingerprinting’?

Posted on February 21, 2011 by mikethemadbiologist

The consensus sequence is the real problem.
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Posted in Genetics, HIV, Public Health, The Rule of Law | 6 Comments

On Genetic Denialism

Posted on December 28, 2010 by mikethemadbiologist

Explaining heritability isn’t easy.
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Posted in Framing, Genetics, Genomics | 6 Comments

GWAS FIGHT! (Hiss! Snarl!): Déja Vu All Over Again

Posted on December 9, 2010 by mikethemadbiologist

We’ll ultimately come to the conclusion that some diseases have a very limited genetic component and some don’t; some can be attributed to common alleles, and some rare alleles; some traits will be determined by variation among many genes, and others among few; some diseases or traits will be driven by large scale deletions, some won’t be.
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Posted in Genetics, Genomics | 3 Comments

DOJ Argues That Patenting the Sun Is a Bad Idea

Posted on November 2, 2010 by mikethemadbiologist

The Justice Department argues that gene sequences can’t be patented. About time.
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Posted in Biotech, Genetics, Genomics | 4 Comments

The Unspoken, yet Vital Component of Hertability Estimates: Is This a Problem for GWAS?

Posted on October 26, 2010 by mikethemadbiologist

Until we characterize the environment more rigorously–and healthy and diseased isn’t going to cut it–we have to treat many of these heritability estimates, and the attempts to explain the underlying contributions of genes, as speculative.
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Posted in Environment, Genetics, Genomics, Human Genetics | 6 Comments