For one week this summer, students from local high schools came together to study genetics in Project GENES, and even take a look at their own genes. The project, supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, involves students from Gray Stone Day School, Independence High School and Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology in hands-on activities, labs and field trips involving DNA. These students recently met for a residential camp at Pfeiffer University, where biology professors Dane Fisher and Laura Reichenberg guided them through genetics investigations. Our goal is to do STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] outreach to high school students, with a focus on students underrepresented in science, Reichenberg said. We collaborate with their high school science teachers and the teachers recruit students each year. The students recruited take part in Project GENES for one year. Fisher and Reichenberg visit their high schools for DNA modules that increase in complexity, then the students come together for the summer camp, where they put in practice what they have learned. Theyre basically isolating their own DNA. They get to amplify one of their own genes, Reichenberg said. Students run tests on their PTC gene, a gene that determines a persons ability … Continue reading →

What happened Shares of Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ:MYGN), a company focused on genetic testing, rose more than 26% in June, according to data fromS&P Global Market Intelligence. Investors can credit the gains to a trio of positive announcements. First, Myriad announced results from a 2,000-patient study using its myRisk Hereditary cancertest. Data from the study showed that 50% of breast cancer mutationsare missed with current testing guidelines and that 34% of these mutations were notpredicted by family history. This data helped to demonstrate the clinical advantages of the using company's test and could help to spur demand. Image source: Getty Images. Second, Myriad said that 17 health insurance plans have decided to cover the company's EndoPredict breast cancer test. Those 17 plans represent more than 35 million lives and bring the company's private pay coverage total up to109 million lives. Finally, the company reported clinical results from its phase 3 OlympiAD trial with partner AstraZeneca. Data from the trial showed that Myriad's BRACAnalysis CDx companion test helped to identify patients with BRCA-mutated HER2-metastatic breast cancer. Physicians then used that identification to treat patients with either AstraZeneca's drug olaparib or standard chemotherapy. The data showed that using olaparib led to a meaningfulgain … Continue reading →

An announcement is expected on Thursday, and the companies hope to complete the transaction by the end of the year. Ambry Genetics declined to comment. The Japanese government is helping to drive the diversification efforts. A state-backed investment fund, the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, is teaming up with Konica Minolta in the Ambry acquisition. According to the people familiar with the deal, Konica Minolta would take a 60 percent share in Ambry, with the rest to be acquired by the fund. Ambry, which is privately held, would retain its current leadership, these people said. The management team includes the company founder and chairman, Charles L. M. Dunlop, who has said his own experience with prostate cancer now in remission influenced his decision to make public anonymized information from Ambrys database. Pooling data from many people is considered crucial to finding genetic elements that contribute to illnesses. For Konica Minolta, the acquisition would confirm the acceleration of efforts to diversify beyond photocopiers and printers, areas where revenue and profit have been shrinking. The Japanese company has identified health care, and cancer screening in particular, as a possible mainstay of business. It has been developing its own cancer-detecting technology using light-emitting … Continue reading →

With herd averages approaching 40,000 lb of milk per cow and the single lactation record nearly double that, it begs the question: Are we approaching the genetic limits of milk production. In a word: No, say Kent Weigel, a geneticist with the University of Wisconsin and Chad Dechow, a geneticist with Pennsylvania State University. We really arent, says Weigel. The same question was asked 40 years ago when Beecher Arlinda Ellen produced 55,561 lb of milk in a 365-day lactation. That record wasnt broken for 19 years. But then, the record toppledagain and again and again. Last year, Ever-Green-View My Gold-ET, set a new single lactation milk production record with 77,480 lb in 365 days. In percentage terms, My Gold out-did Ellen by nearly 40%! I think we have a little way to go before we reach the limit, says Dechow. If you look at the Predicted Transmitting Ability for milk on these record cows, theyre just slightly above average. The other way to look at, says Weigel, is to consider feed intake as a multiple of the maintenance requirement. In the 1980 and 1990s, top cows were producing maybe five times their body maintenance levels. We didnt have any … Continue reading →

VOL. 132 | NO. 135 | Monday, July 10, 2017 A pair of scientists in Memphis is using almost $2 million in grant money to make improvements to an online database and open-source software system called GeneNetwork, used by researchers to study genetic differences and evaluate disease risk. Drs. Robert Williams and Saunak Sen, both part of the faculty at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, won a grant from the National Institutes of Health for the project. GeneNetwork was launched in 2001 as part of a NIH Human Brain Project grant to UTHSC and was one of the first websites designed for gene mapping. Williams, who chairs the Department of Genetics, Genomics and Informatics at UTHSC, said the grant money will be used to support major upgrades for the software infrastructure for gene mapping and analysis for the system. One of the systems main uses, he said, is being able to predict more accurate health outcomes from genetic and environmental data. The system itself is like a combination of Microsofts popular Excel spreadsheet software paired with large amounts of financial data. Except in this case, its biological rather than financial data, combined with a sophisticated spreadsheet that allows … Continue reading →