HEALTH
January 16, 2011 | By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times
When Mike Godfrey's employer put out a call for recruits for a study on genetic testing, he hesitated before volunteering to hand over a swab of his saliva. The communications executive at Scripps Health in La Jolla wasn't completely sure he wanted to know what the test would reveal about diseases he might get down the road. Thinking twice made sense. Ever since the 2007 introduction of direct-to-consumer genome-wide tests — which scan a person's DNA and report on the genetic risk of developing 20 to 40 common diseases — experts have wondered whether telling regular folks they're more likely to develop illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease or cancer would trigger extreme anxiety, or would result in increased use of unnecessary and expensive medical tests.
ENTERTAINMENT
March 15, 2010
The Early Show Bobby Flay. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Michael Lewis; Todd Bridges; Jason Priestley; Bethenny Frankel; Jeff Daniels. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Live With Regis and Kelly Jennifer Aniston; The Script performs. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Jessica Simpson. (N) 10 a.m. KABC The Doctors Liz Vaccariello, editor in chief of Prevention magazine, joins the doctors to discuss home remedies for common ailments; secrets for youthful skin; curing sore muscles.
NATIONAL
August 17, 2006 | Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer
The dying woman looked up at her physician. "What do you believe?" The question unsettled Dr. Francis Collins. For days, he had watched the elderly woman serenely endure the pain of a failing heart, certain she was leaving this world for a better one. She talked to him often of her faith. He listened with bemusement. He was a man of science; he had earned a PhD in physical chemistry at Yale and was completing his medical degree with bedside training at a North Carolina hospital.
NEWS
June 27, 2000 | PETER G. GOSSELIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Everybody has a particular way of entering a room. Francis Collins' is to come in quietly behind controversial figures. In 1992, Collins took charge of the publicly led Human Genome Project after James D. Watson, the voluble co-discoverer of DNA's structure, quit in a spat with his government superiors. He was pushed farther into the limelight when J. Craig Venter, the mercurial president of Celera Genomics, announced his determination to beat Collins' team to cracking the genetic code.
SCIENCE
September 18, 2010 | By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times
Considering that he's the director of the federal agency that invests more than $30 billion in medical research each year, it may not be surprising that Dr. Francis Collins was on the Sony lot in Culver City last week for the telecast of "Stand Up to Cancer," a star-studded gala that aired live on more than a dozen TV networks and garnered more than $80 million in pledges to fund cancer research. But perhaps few viewers expected to see the head of the National Institutes of Health jamming onstage with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Kris Kristofferson, Aaron Neville and the Wilson sisters of Heart.
NEWS
December 18, 1992 | Associated Press
Dr. Francis S. Collins, co-discoverer of the cystic fibrosis gene, has been selected to become director of the National Center for Human Genome Research, sources said Thursday. Collins, 42, a professor at the University of Michigan, is to take over directing the genetic center early next year, according to sources close to the leadership at the National Institutes of Health. Johanna Schneider, spokeswoman in the office of NIH Director Dr. Bernadine Healy, declined to comment on the report.