Genetics News

If you underwent a genetic test for a heart condition, but the test also revealed that you have a high risk of colon cancer, would you want to know? A respected scientific society says your doctor should tell you, but the group is receiving criticism for its recommendation that "incidental findings" of genetic tests be shared with patients.

A human embryo, containing about a couple hundred cells, is smaller than the period at the end of a sentence.

The revelation that Hollywood celebrity Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy as a preventative measure against cancer stoked heated discussion this week, but one prominent cancer researcher says it demonstrates the need to make genetic testing available to all Canadians.

Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center have successfully reprogrammed human skin cells to become embryonic stem cells capable of transforming into any other cell type in the body.

As suicide rates climb steeply in the US a growing number of psychiatrists are arguing that suicidal behaviour should be considered as a disease in its own right, rather than as a behaviour resulting from a mood disorder.

When you first read the news about Angelina Jolie 's double mastectomy - volunteer surgery she underwent as a breast cancer preventative - what was your first response? Along with the immediate realization that this must have been an agonizing decision for Ms.

When Angelina Jolie revealed she'd had a double mastectomy, she probably had a pretty good idea that her bravery would empower other women to tell their breast cancer stories.

Genetic testing has long required patient consent and patients have had a "right not to know" the results.

The researchers showed that, in mice, the tissue can be used to foster the development of white blood cells the body needs to mount healthy immune responses and to prevent harmful autoimmune reactions.

After President Obama overturned Bush-era policy restricting federal funding of embryonic stem cell research in 2009, Nebraska Right to Life led a protest of the research outside the University of Nebraska regents' meeting.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, is the official list of all the mental disorders doctors can use to diagnose mental illness.

A look at the Beagle supercomputer at the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago.

Angelina Jolie's mother had breast cancer and died of ovarian cancer, and her maternal grandmother also had ovarian cancer - strong evidence of an inherited, genetic risk that led the actress to have both of her healthy breasts removed to try to avoid the same fate, her doctor said Wednesday.

Understanding the concept of morphogen gradients -- the mechanism by which a signal from one part of a developing embryo can influence the location and other variables of surrounding cells -- is important to developmental biology, gene regulation, evolution, and human health.

Now, the public knows about Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy. She wrote in the New York Times that, thanks to genetic testing, she believed there was an 87 percent chance she'd get breast cancer, so she went for it.

Yesterday Angelina Jolie shared her experience as a carrier of a BRCA1 genetic mutation that confers a very high lifetime risk of developing invasive breast cancer .

Weight gain in men and women is predicted by two different genetic variations -- so-called polymorphisms, according to a new study from the Netherlands.

Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos, a longstanding goal that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease and diabetes.

Her double mastectomy is being hailed by most as a courageous step to give other women the courage to go forward with genetic testing and the tough decisions that often come with a positive result.

"I hope that other women can benefit from my experience," Angelina Jolie wrote in a powerful op-ed article Tuesday, explaining her decision to go public with having her breasts removed to avoid cancer.