Genetic variants can drastically change how certain enzymes work. While some people are fast metabolisers — they break down drugs too quickly before the medicine even has time to act — some others are slow metabolisers: their bodies process drugs too slowly, allowing the drugs to build up to toxic levels
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Knowing our genetic risks means rewriting what was once seen as destiny. From uncertainty, we are moving toward awareness and prevention, and turning generations of loss into a future of hope
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Two studies provide new insights into one of the most consequential episodes in human history. Genomic evidence links Y. pestis to the plague of Justinian, marking the begining of the First Pandemic (AD 541-750) in the ancient city of Jerash, Jordan. Genomic evidence also shows Y. pestis was circulating in human populations for millennia even before the Justinian outbreak
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The genomic newborn screening initiative is gaining momentum across the world, with large-scale programmes now under way in the U.S., the UK, Europe, and Australia. At least 1.7 million babies in India are born every year with birth defects, many of which are due to genetic conditions. Almost 1 in 250 children have a 250treatable genetic disease. Yet, genetic screening at birth almost does not exist in the public healthcare system in India
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Seventeen of 23 individuals exposed to chemotherapy had far more genetic mutations than could be explained by normal aging. Even more revealing was the discovery of eight unique mutational signatures that were found only in the chemotherapy group. While some of these fingerprints matched the known damage profiles of certain chemo drugs, four of them were entirely new to science, uncovering previously unknown ways these treatments can alter our DNA
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For the first time, researchers have sequenced the whole ancient Egyptian genome from an individual who lived 4,500 to 4,800 years ago — the oldest DNA sample from Egypt to date. The body belongs to an adult male — 157.4-160.5 cm tall, and 44-64 years old — who died during Egypt’s Old Kingdom
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Whole-genome sequencing of 2,762 Indians has unravelled the layers of ancestry, high intermixing with Neanderthals and Denisovans — which allowed the reconstruction of roughly half of the Neanderthal genome and one-fifth of the Denisovan genome using only Indian genomes — and high endogamy in India resulting in harmful mutations in some groups.
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NIV should quickly make genome data available in a public database so that researchers in India and elsewhere can analyse
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The Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) has shared the H5N1 genome sequence data with the Global Initiative on Sharing
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NIV researchers prioritising paper publication over free and immediate access to genome sequence data and other vital information was once
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On July 20, the Thiruvananthapuram-based Institute of Advanced Virology tested the Nipah virus sample in four hours and conveyed the
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GISAID says it reversed its stand and lifted the temporary access restrictions as a ‘show of goodwill’ and did so after it received a reply from the authors on March 21
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Three years after strict enforcement of its Zero-COVID strategy, China abandoned it abruptly, leading to a jump in cases each
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