Huge Genetic Study May Lead To Arthritis Breakthrough
Osteoarthritisa is a degenerative joint disease in which a joints become damaged, stop moving freely freely, and become painful. It is a complex disease, and more than 20 million Americans suffer from it. Globally, the number is 350 million. Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of disability, and unfortunately, there is no cure. The disease is managed with […]
Biobanks for Population Health
As millions of consumers and providers add data to patient EHRs, a multitude of data will become available for the greater good. Researchers can anonymize the data and combine it with a large database containing vast amounts of information about the health of the population at a community level, nationally, or globally. In order to […]
Gene-editing Gets Major Funding
Last year, I wrote about a team of Chinese scientists having received ethical approval to perform a clinical trial of gene-editing. The goal was to test whether gene-editing may be a potential cure for cancer. The technology used for the trial is called CRISPR/Cas9, not exactly a household name. CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Cas9 stands for […]
DNA and the Genome
I have been fascinated with DNA and genetics for years, and have read a number of books about them. It seems the more I read, the less I know. The terminology is mind numbing and still expanding. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule that carries the genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning, and […]
Gene-editing May Become Sputnik 2.0
In August I wrote about a team of Chinese scientists having received ethical approval in July to perform a clinical trial of gene-editing. The goal was to test whether gene-editing may be a potential cure for cancer. The trial began in a hospital in Chengdu, China in October. The gene-editing used CRISPR-Cas9, not exactly a household name. CRISPR […]
