Thursday, October 05, 2000

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SFGate DNA Test Compares 50 People
"A Bay Area biotech startup plans to go one step beyond the Human Genome Project by comparing the DNA of 50 diverse individuals for clues about what makes some people tall, others short, some sick and others well.

Yesterday's announcement by newly formed Perlegen Sciences Inc., a spin-off of Santa Clara's based Affymetrix Corp., represents an ambitious attempt to create, in as little as a year's time, new tests to diagnose diseases and, in the future, new drugs to treat them.

"What makes me so excited is that we have a real chance to put some of this genetic knowledge to use in my lifetime,'' said Stanford University geneticist David Cox, who has taken a leave of absence to launch Perlegen."

MSNBC Glass chips as a window on disease
"The ultimate goal is to tell the drug companies what genes they need to affect as they design new pharmaceutical compounds. Perlegen would most likely make its money by receiving multimillion-dollar payments from drug companies as it hits critical milestones.

There is no hard evidence to prove the venture will work—failures or bottlenecks at any of several complicated steps could derail it. Moreover, for various technical reasons, it’s possible Perlegen will wind up creating a “noisy” database with a lot of bad information, which would severely limit its usefulness. But Stephen P.A. Fodor, chairman and chief executive of Affymetrix, said preliminary research has convinced him that the approach is workable."

redux [07.13.00]
The New York Times Genes May Cause 25% of 3 Major Cancers
[requires 'free' registration]
"Genes may cause more than one-quarter of three major types of cancer, more than previously thought, a group of researchers says.

Scandinavian researchers concluded that genes account for 42 percent of the risk for prostate cancer, 35 percent for colorectal cancer and 27 percent for breast cancer.

The rest of the cases are caused by what people do, such as smoking and diet, or what happens to them, such as on-the-job hazards or viral infections, the researchers said."

"...the conclusion runs contrary to the widespread belief that scientists "will find solutions or cures to all diseases in the genes," Dr. Lichtenstein said. "That won't be the case."

redux [05.26.00]
British Medical Journal Genetic epidemiology
"Research in disease aetiology has shifted towards investigating genetic causes, powered by the human genome project. Successful identification of genes for monogenic disease has led to interest in investigating the genetic component of diseases that are often termed complex, that is, they are known to aggregate in families but do not segregate in a mendelian fashion. Genetic epidemiology has permitted identification of genes affecting people's susceptibility to disease, although progress has been much slower than many people expected. While the role of genetic factors in diseases such as hypertension, asthma, and depression is being intensively studied, family studies and the large geographical and temporal variation in the occurrence of many diseases indicate a major role of the environment. Thus, it is necessary to consider findings about susceptibility genes in the context of a population and evaluate the role of genetic factors in relation to other aetiological factors. This article discusses some approaches used to resolve the genetic architecture of disease and to study the relation of genes to environmental factors in the population. "

BioMedCentral Simplifying genetic disorders
"Simple genetic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and thalassaemia are just that — simple. A single gene underlies them. Finding it is like climbing a steep hill — hard work but straightforward. Complex disorders, such as asthma and type 2 diabetes, by contrast, have many components, which makes finding a cause more like scaling Everest — far harder, requiring more specialist equipment and the strong possibility of failure.

In work published in the October issue of Nature Genetics, University of Chicago researchers have cleared a path to studying the genetic foundation of type 2, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). In a study of a Mexican-American population and two white populations (Finns and Germans) they have found that small genetic variations, called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), in a particular gene tend to occur more often in diabetics than in healthy relatives. Although finding a common genetic variation in family groups affected by simple genetic disorders is implicit, a gene implicated in a population with a complex disease could provide a potential new target for gene therapy. "Variation in this gene is associated with a threefold increased risk in the groups studied," explains lead researcher Graeme Bell. "

"The research does represent a shift in the landscape of genetic diseases. "Studies are not going to be easy," says Bell "but they are not impossible and each locus will present its own challenges." Kruglyak feels the path is clearer, if only because of the 'psychological factor' of showing it can succeed. How important it will be in the overall problem of diabetes, or how often this kind of success will occur in other diseases, will emerge in time. "