The Goldilocks Genome

The Goldilocks Genome PDF Author: Elizabeth Reed Aden
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1684632552
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
When San Francisco–based FDA epidemiologist Dr. Carrie Hediger uncovers a rash of unexplained deaths while investigating the suspiciously convenient death of her best friend, she becomes determined to find answers—even if it leads her to a murderer, and even if confronting authority, using her wiles, and bending the rules to get justice risks her future in the FDA. To unravel the puzzle, Carrie assembles a team: some talented post-doctoral fellows, a quirky pharmacologist, an unctuous chemist, and a skeptical FBI agent that she can’t help her attraction for. Together, they follow the data through the twists and turns, eventually uncovering that the Goldilocks effect in prescription drugs—the premise that people are inclined to seek “just the right amount” of something—is central to understanding these mysterious deaths. Through the twists and turns, Carrie and her team enter a race to uncover the truth . . . and catch a killer. Grounded in real data analysis techniques, real science and pharmacology, and actual current psychiatric practices, The Goldilocks Genome is simultaneously a taut, race-against-time thriller and a condemnation of the psychiatric industry’s failure to implement genetic-based “personalized medicine”—a problem that persists to this day.

The Goldilocks Genome

The Goldilocks Genome PDF Author: Elizabeth Reed Aden
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1684632552
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
When San Francisco–based FDA epidemiologist Dr. Carrie Hediger uncovers a rash of unexplained deaths while investigating the suspiciously convenient death of her best friend, she becomes determined to find answers—even if it leads her to a murderer, and even if confronting authority, using her wiles, and bending the rules to get justice risks her future in the FDA. To unravel the puzzle, Carrie assembles a team: some talented post-doctoral fellows, a quirky pharmacologist, an unctuous chemist, and a skeptical FBI agent that she can’t help her attraction for. Together, they follow the data through the twists and turns, eventually uncovering that the Goldilocks effect in prescription drugs—the premise that people are inclined to seek “just the right amount” of something—is central to understanding these mysterious deaths. Through the twists and turns, Carrie and her team enter a race to uncover the truth . . . and catch a killer. Grounded in real data analysis techniques, real science and pharmacology, and actual current psychiatric practices, The Goldilocks Genome is simultaneously a taut, race-against-time thriller and a condemnation of the psychiatric industry’s failure to implement genetic-based “personalized medicine”—a problem that persists to this day.

The Genome Factor

The Genome Factor PDF Author: Dalton Conley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691183163
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
"For a century, social scientists have avoided genetics like the plague. But in the past decade, a small but intrepid group of economists, political scientists, and sociologists have harnessed the genomics revolution to paint a more complete picture of human social life than ever before. The Genome Factor describes the latest astonishing discoveries being made at the scientific frontier where genomics and the social sciences intersect. The Genome Factor reveals that there are real genetic differences by racial ancestry--but ones that don't conform to what we call black, white, or Latino. Genes explain a significant share of who gets ahead in society and who does not, but instead of giving rise to a genotocracy, genes often act as engines of mobility that counter social disadvantage. An increasing number of us are marrying partners with similar education levels as ourselves, but genetically speaking, humans are mixing it up more than ever before with respect to mating and reproduction. These are just a few of the many findings presented in this illuminating and entertaining book, which also tackles controversial topics such as genetically personalized education and the future of reproduction in a world where more and more of us are taking advantage of cheap genotyping services like 23andMe to find out what our genes may hold in store for ourselves and our children. The Genome Factor shows how genomics is transforming the social sciences--and how social scientists are integrating both nature and nurture into a unified, comprehensive understanding of human behavior at both the individual and society-wide levels."--

Evolution of the Human Genome I

Evolution of the Human Genome I PDF Author: Naruya Saitou
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 4431566031
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
This book reviews the human genome from an evolutionary perspective. No such book has ever been published before, although there are many books on human genomes. There are two parts in this book: Overview of the Human Genome (Part I) and The Human Genome Viewed through Genes (Part II). In Part I, after a brief review of human evolution and the human genome (by Naruya Saitou), chapters on rubbish or junk DNA (by Dan Graur), GC content heterogeneity (by Satoshi Oota), protein coding and RNA coding genes (by Tadashi Imanishi), duplicated genes (by Takashi Kitano), recombinations (by Montanucci and Bertranpetit), and copy number variations including microsatellites (by Naoko Takezaki) are discussed. Readers can obtain various new insights on the human genome from this part. In Part II, genes in X and Y chromosomes (by Yoko Satta and others), HLA genes (by Timothy A. Jinam), opsin genes (by Shoji Kawamura and Amanda D. Melin), genes related to phenotypic variations (by Ryosuke Kimura), transcription factors (by Mahoko Takahashi and So Nakagawa), diabetes-related genes (by Ituro Inoue), disease genes in general (by Ituro Inoue and Hirofumi Nakaoka), and microbial genomes (by Chaochun Wei) are discussed. The human genome sequences were determined in 2004, and after more than 10 years we are now beginning to understand the human genome from an evolutionary point of view. This book furnishes readers with a good summary of current research in the field.

What's in Your Genome?

What's in Your Genome? PDF Author: Laurence A. Moran
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 148753857X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
What’s in Your Genome? describes the functional regions of the human genome, the evidence that 90% of it is junk DNA, and the reasons this evidence has not been widely accepted by the popular press and much of the scientific community. The human genome contains about 25,000 protein-coding and noncoding genes and many other functional elements, such as origins of replication, regulatory elements, and centromeres. Functional elements occupy only about 10 percent of the more than three billion base pairs in the human genome. Much of the rest is composed of ancient fragments of broken genes, transposons, and viruses. Almost all of this is thought to be junk DNA, based on evidence that dates back fifty years. This conclusion is controversial. What’s in Your Genome? describes the arguments on both sides of the debate and attempts to explain the reasoning behind those different points of view. The book corrects a number of false narratives that have arisen in recent years and examines how they have affected the debate over junk DNA. In addition, Laurence A. Moran focuses on scientific misconceptions and misinformation and on how the junk DNA controversy has been incorrectly portrayed in both the scientific literature and the popular press. Tracing the earliest indications of junk DNA back to the 1960s, the book explains the success of nearly neutral theory and the importance of random genetic drift, which gave rise to the view that evolution produces sloppy genomes full of junk DNA. What’s in Your Genome? aims to offer the most accurate and current account of the human genome.

The $1,000 Genome

The $1,000 Genome PDF Author: Kevin Davies
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416569618
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
In 2000, President Bill Clinton signaled the completion of the Human Genome Project at a cost in excess of $2 billion. A decade later, the price for any of us to order our own personal genome sequence--a comprehensive map of the 3 billion letters in our DNA--is rapidly and inevitably dropping to just $1,000. Dozens of men and women--scientists, entrepreneurs, celebrities, and patients--have already been sequenced, pioneers in a bold new era of personalized genomic medicine. The $1,000 genome has long been considered the tipping point that would open the floodgates to this revolution. Do you have gene variants associated with Alzheimer's or diabetes, heart disease or cancer? Which drugs should you consider taking for various diseases, and at what dosage? In the years to come, doctors will likely be able to tackle all of these questions--and many more--by using a computer in their offices to call up your unique genome sequence, which will become as much a part of your medical record as your blood pressure.

Manufacturing of Gene Therapeutics

Manufacturing of Gene Therapeutics PDF Author: G. Subramanian
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461513537
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Advances in molecular biology and recombinant DNA technology have accelerated progress in many fields of life science research, including gene therapy. A large number of genetic engineering approaches and methods are readily available for gene cloning and therapeutic vector construction. Significant progress is being made in genomic, DNA sequencing, gene expression, gene delivery and cloning. Thus gene therapy has already shown that it holds great promise for the treatment of many diseases and disorders. In general it involves the delivery of recombinant genes or transgenes into somatic cells to replace proteins with a genetic defect or to transfer with the pathological process of an illness. The viral and non-viral delivery systems may hold the potential for future non-invasive, cost-effective oral therapy of genetically-based disorders. Recent years have seen considerable progress in the discovery and early clinical development of a variety of gene therapeutic products. The availability, validation, and implementation of gene therapeutic products has also enabled success in testing and evaluation. New challenges will need to be overcome to ensure that products will also be successful in later clinical development and ultimately for marketing authorisation. These new challenges will include improvements in delivery systems, better control of in-vivo targeting, increased level transduction and duration of expression of the gene, and manufacturing process efficiencies that enable reduction in production costs. Perhaps profound understanding of regulated gene design may result in innovative bioproducts exhibiting safety and efficacy profiles that are significantly superior to those achieved by the use of naturally occurring genes. This procedure may contribute considerably to fulfilling standards set by regulatory authorities. This book provides an overview of the current advances in the field of gene therapy and the methods that are being successfully applied in the manufacture of gene therapeutic products, and hopefully will stimulate further progress and advancement in this field to meet the ever-increasing demands.

Darwinizing Gaia

Darwinizing Gaia PDF Author: W. Ford Doolittle
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262380625
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
A reinterpretation of James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis through the lens of Darwinian natural selection and multispecies community evolution. First conceived in the 1970s, James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis proposed that living organisms developed in tandem with their inorganic surroundings, forming a complex, self-regulating system. Today, most evolutionary biologists consider the theory problematic. In Darwinizing Gaia, W. Ford Doolittle, one of evolutionary and molecular biology’s most prestigious thinkers, reformulates what evolution by natural selection is while legitimizing the controversial Gaia Hypothesis. As the first book attempting to reconcile Gaia with Darwinian thinking, and the first on persistence-based evolution, Doolittle’s clear, innovative position broadens evolutionary theory by offering potential remedies for Gaia’s theoretical challenges. Unquestionably, the current “polycrisis” is the most complex that Homo sapiens has ever faced, and this book can help overcome the widespread belief that evolutionary biologists don’t believe Lovelock. Written in the tradition of Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene, Darwinizing Gaia will appeal to students, evolutionary scientists, philosophers, and microbiologists, as well as environmentalists seeking to understand the Earth as a system, at a time when climate change has drawn our planet’s structure and function into sharp relief.

Invertebrate Zoology

Invertebrate Zoology PDF Author: Bernd Schierwater
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 148223582X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
Invertebrate Zoology: A Tree of Life Approach is a comprehensive and authoritative textbook adopting an explicitly phylogenetic organization. Most of the classical anatomical and morphological work has not been changed – it established the foundation of Invertebrate Zoology. With the explosion of Next-Generation Sequencing approaches, there has been a sea-change in the recognized phylogenetic relationships among and between invertebrate lineages. In addition, the merger of evolutionary and developmental biology (evo-devo) has dramatically contributed to changes in the understanding of invertebrate biology. Synthesizing these three approaches (classical morphology, sequencing data, and evo-devo studies) offers students an entirely unique perspective of invertebrate diversity. Key Features One of the first textbooks to combine classical morphological approaches and newer evo-devo and Next-Generation Sequencing approaches to address Invertebrate Zoology Organized along taxonomic lines in accord with the latest understanding of invertebrate phylogeny Will provide background in basic systematic analysis useful within any study of biodiversity A wealth of ancillary materials for students and teachers, including downloadable figures, lecture slides, web links, and phylogenetic data matrices

The Godless Delusion

The Godless Delusion PDF Author: Joe Egan
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039118991
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
In a recent work Richard Dawkins posed an immense challenge to theology by arguing on scientific grounds that the existence of God is so improbable that it can be safely dismissed as a delusion. This work responds to the challenge by examining the arguments put forward by Dawkins and subjecting them to critique in the light of Christian faith. The critique probes some of the assumptions underlying scientific endeavours about the nature of reality and it brings to the surface the question of how meaning, truth and freedom are properly to be understood. The work goes on to present a theological understanding of these realities in the light of Christian beliefs in God, in Jesus Christ, in creation and in redemption. Far from denying the importance of scientific endeavours and discoveries, this approach seeks to provide a framework in which they can be meaningfully situated, for the betterment of humanity as a whole.

Origins of Human Neuropathology: The Significance of Teneurin-Latrophilin Interaction

Origins of Human Neuropathology: The Significance of Teneurin-Latrophilin Interaction PDF Author: David A. Lovejoy
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889638588
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
We are delighted to introduce this new special issue on “The Origins of Neuropathology: The Roles of Teneurins and Latrophilins”. Although the title may seem particularly bold, and indeed, perhaps presumptuous, we the editors, think our title well warranted based on the findings and interpretation provided by a dedicated group of researchers who have developed this field over the last 25 years. In this publication, we introduce the readers to researchers whom have pioneered this field, and those whom have played an essential role in developing this research direction. Now, together, their combined work have elucidated a novel ligandreceptor network that evolved during the earliest period of animal evolution, and has fostered a new insight into the ancient evolutionary organization of the central nervous system (CNS). Specifically, this work offers a new understanding of several aspects of neuropathology including degenerative, psychiatric and mood disorders and, furthermore, illuminates a fundamental role that teneurins and latrophilins play in cell-to-cell metabolism that may be associated with various forms of cancer both within and outside of the brain. In 1994, the laboratories of Professors Ron Wides in Israel and Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann working in Switzerland, independently reported the existence of a novel transmembrane protein and its gene in Drosophila. A complex gene/protein, its closest homologue was that of the tenascins. The gene was named either odd oz (odz) or tenascin major (ten-m) by these researchers. Subsequent studies indicated that the gene was highly expressed in the brains of vertebrates and the term ‘teneurin’ was coined to reflect both its relationship with tenascins and with the CNS. Around the same time as these studies, a novel G protein-coupled receptor was identified by Yuri Ushkaryov and his team in the United Kingdom (in fact the latrophilins then named CIRL, calcium-independent receptor for a-latrotoxin, was first identified by the group of Petrenko at NYU Medical Center in New York, USA), which was subsequently established as a cognate receptor for the teneurins. This receptor was later termed as the latrophilins and more recently ‘Adhesion receptor G-protein coupled receptor, family L or ADGRL. In Part 1 of this publication, the early history on the origin and discovery of teneurins has been described by Stefan Baumgartner and Ron Wides; Ron Wides; and Richard Tucker. Recent structural studies by Verity Jackson and her colleagues, as well as Demet Arae¸ and Jingxian Li have provided molecular models to understand how teneurins are ensconced in the plasma membrane and play a role in synaptic interaction. In addition, their work integrates the molecular mechanisms with the early evolution of both teneurins and latrophilins. In Part 2, four studies build upon the evolutionary development of teneurins by examining its role in nematodes by Ulrike Topf and Krzysztof Drabikowski, a model of teneurin action in the Drosophilia nervous system by Alison DePew and associates; and two studies on fish. Angela Cheung and her colleagues describe the neurological function and expression in zebrafish, whereas Ross Reid and his coworkers have described novel actions of the teneurins with respect to metabolism in fish. Part 3 of this publication is focused on the latrophilins and is led off by Yuri Ushkaryov and his team describing the discovery, structure and function of the latrophilins. This work is followed by a review by Ana Moreno-Salinas and colleagues in Antony Boucard´s laboratory describing the structure of the latrophilins and its interaction with associated transmembrane proteins with respect to adhesion, neuronal function and pathology. The following paper, by Torsten Schönberg and Simone Prömel links the previous papers with a comparison of teneurin and latrophilin interactions in invertebrates and vertebrates. Finally, in this section, Peter Burbach and Dimphna Meijer provide an interesting overview of the relationship of teneurins and latrophilins with respect to other proteins described in these other papers. Together, these studies provide a novel understanding of how the teneurins and latrophilins interact in a complex set of associated proteins. The next section (Part 4) of the publication focuses on the development and maintenance of the CNS in mammals. Here, Catherine Leamey and Atomu Sawatari lead off with a discussion of the role of teneurin-associated neuro-circuit formation using knockout studies in mice. A detailed review by Luciane Sita and her colleagues in the Bittencourt laboratory frames this and previous studies in a comparative neuroanatomical background, and in addition, provides a neuroanatomical rationale for new studies associated with other regions of the CNS. Building upon these studies, David Hogg and his coworkers include a review on the behavioral actions of the teneurin C-terminal associated peptide (TCAP) in mammals and its potential relationship to brain metabolism and forms of neuropathology. Finally, in this section, a study by Gesttner Tessarin in the Casatti laboratory shows for the first time, teneurins may be associated with astrocyte function, indicating a novel function for teneurins with respect to some glial-based disorders in the brain. Finally in our last section, we have provided some studies on the potential roles of the teneurins and latrophilins with respect to carcinogenesis. Although these studies are somewhat removed from our treatise on the role of teneurins and latrophilins with respect to neuronal development, maintenance and pathology, they provide interesting observations that may be relevant to some types of CNS pathology. Thus, Boris Rebolledo-Jaramillo and Annemarie Ziegler include a review on the relationship of teneurins to several types of cancers. This is followed by a research report by Mia Husić and her colleagues suggesting that the TCAP region of the teneurins could play a role in modulating the adhesion of the cancer-like cell line, HEK293 and finally, Sussy Bastias-Candia and associates have provided novel data on the role of teneurin-3 with respect to Wnt signalling and have discussed its potential role in neural development and carcinogenesis. Overall, we posit that the teneurins and latrophilins played a major role in the early evolution of the nervous system and may underlie the etiology of a number of neurological disorders that are thus-far misunderstood. Indeed, we hope that this publication will stimulate further research into the actions of teneurins and latrophilins and lead to novel approaches of understanding and ultimately treatment. Obituary: Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann (1954-2015): A Teneurin Pioneer A major player in the discovery and characterization of teneurins was the Swiss scientist, Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann. Dr. Chiquet-Ehrismann had a long-standing interest in cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions, particularly during development and tumorigenesis. She earned her Ph.D. at the ETH Zurich under the mentorship of David C. Turner, where she performed early work on the cell and heparin-binding sites of fibronectin. Shortly after joining the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel as a junior group leader in 1984, Ruth, in collaboration with Eleanor J. Mackie and Teruyo Sakakura, published a paper in Cell describing an extracellular matrix glycoprotein that she named “tenascin”. A key observation made in this widely cited paper was the presence of tenascin in the extracellular matrix of embryonic tissues and the stroma of breast cancer, but its absence from most normal adult tissues. We now know that the original “tenascin” was the founding member of a diverse gene family, and that members of this family promote cell motility, proliferation and differentiation in a variety of tissue environments, both normal and pathological. But in the early 1990s, it was unclear how tenascins functioned. Specifically, its receptors and binding partners were not understood. Subsequently, Ruth engaged in a multi-pronged approach to studying tenascin function in an attempt to identify its homologues in Drosophila. This work, led by her postdoctoral fellow Dr. Stefan Baumgartner, resulted in the discovery of a novel family of type-2 transmembrane proteins that they named ten-a and ten-m, for “tenascin-like proteins accessory and major”. When the homologues of ten-a and ten-m were found in vertebrates and they were shown to be highly expressed in the nervous system, Ruth proposed the name “teneurins”. This name combined the names of the original proteins from Drosophila with neurons, which appeared to be their most prominent site of expression. From that point onward, Ruth’s research group at the Friedrich Miescher Institute studied two topics: the roles of tenascins in cancer and the roles of teneurins in development. Using numerous model systems, her research included studies of teneurins in arthropods (Drosophila), nematodes (C. elegans) and chordates (birds and humans). Key firsts that came from Ruth’s laboratory include the cloning and sequencing of human teneurins, experimental evidence of teneurin processing by furin and the potential nuclear localization of the intracellular domain, the ability of teneurins to promote growth cone spreading, patterning defects in teneurin knockout animals, a description of the ancient origins of teneurins via horizontal gene transfer, the complementary expression patterns of different teneurins during development, the cytotoxic properties of the teneurin C-terminal domain, and the presence of homotypic adhesion domains in teneurins. Since 1994, Ruth’s group published 24 papers on the cloning, expression, origins and functions of teneurins. Contributing to these papers were 15 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, often with the expert technical guidance of Jacqueline Ferralli, Marianne Brown-Luedi and Doris Martin. This work has provided a foundation for a new generation of researchers in the field of teneurins. Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann passed away at her home near Basel on September 4, 2015. She is survived by her husband and collaborator Matthias Chiquet, three children, Daniel, Patrice and Fabian, and an expanding cohort of grandchildren. Richard P. Tucker Davis, California