Genetic Information

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said Tuesday that genetic tests directly marketed to consumers should be allowed only under a doctor's supervision. Personal testing, which is mainly available online from firms operating outside traditional medical institutions, can produce ambiguous or misleading results without proper analysis, panel members said. "I would suggest that we are not ready yet to put this completely in the consumer's hands," said panelist Joann Boughman of the American Society of Human Genetics.

SACRAMENTO-- Delving into an area once reserved for science fiction, state Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) has introduced legislation that would prohibit the unauthorized collection, analysis or transfer of an individual's genetic information. The California Genetic Information Privacy Act, SB 222, is in response to research that is expected to make genomic sequencing and testing affordable to the public and routinely used in medical care, Padilla said.  “I strongly support and believe in the promise of genomic research to improve public health and our quality of life," said Padilla.

President Clinton on Tuesday signed an executive order limiting the use of genetic information by federal agencies in hiring and promotion as the availability of such data is exploding. The order prohibits federal agencies from collecting genetic information from their 2.8 million civilian employees or using such information to make hiring, promotion or placement decisions.

DNA and RNA molecules are the basis for all life on Earth, but they don't necessarily have to be the basis for all life everywhere, scientists have shown. Researchers at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England, demonstrated that six synthetic molecules that are similar to - but not exactly like - DNA and RNA have the potential to exhibit "hallmarks of life" such as storing genetic information, passing it along and undergoing evolution. The man-made molecules are called "XNAs.

Leslie Orgel, the Salk Institute theoretical chemist who was the father of the RNA world theory of the origin of life and who joined with Nobel laureate Francis Crick to postulate that life might have been seeded on Earth by a higher intelligence, died at the San Diego Hospice & Palliative Care on Oct. 27 from pancreatic cancer. He was 80. Reasoning that DNA was too complex to have been the first repository of genetic information, Orgel and others speculated that RNA could have preceded it, simplifying the evolutionary process.

SACRAMENTO-- Delving into an area once reserved for science fiction, state Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) has introduced legislation that would prohibit the unauthorized collection, analysis or transfer of an individual's genetic information. The California Genetic Information Privacy Act, SB 222, is in response to research that is expected to make genomic sequencing and testing affordable to the public and routinely used in medical care, Padilla said.  “I strongly support and believe in the promise of genomic research to improve public health and our quality of life," said Padilla.

A prestigious coalition of health experts and ethicists Thursday called for legislation or other measures to protect against abuse of an individual's genetic information in the workplace--for example, using the data to deny jobs, promotions, insurance coverage or other benefits. In recent years, rapidly growing technology and other advances have enabled geneticists to find disease-related genes in human DNA and to develop new tests to detect who carries them.

UCLA molecular biologist Larry Simpson will report today at a meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science here that he and his colleagues have discovered a new class of molecules that contain genetic information. The new molecules were isolated from a family of parasites, called kinetoplastids, that cause widespread tropical diseases, such as Chagas' disease and sleeping sickness.

The National Institutes of Health quietly blocked public access to databases of patient DNA profiles after learning of a study that found the genetic information may not be as anonymous as previously believed, The Times has learned. Institute officials took the unusual step Monday and removed two databases on its public website. The databases contained the genetic information of more than 60,000 cooperating patients. Scientists began posting the information publicly eight months ago to help further medical research.

Researchers have discovered an unprecedented and unsuspected deviation from one of the fundamental dogmas of molecular biology: that all genetic information is contained in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and that this information is faithfully copied in the production of proteins and other cellular components. The discovery may trigger a fundamental rethinking of mechanisms by which genetic information is converted into living organisms.

Adrian Saxe is a ceramic artist known for juxtaposing the Historic and the Now with a trippy sense of humor. His latest musings in the show "GRIN — Genetic Robotic Information Nano," at Frank Lloyd Gallery through Jan. 7, incorporate Quick Response (QR) codes, or the square bar codes, into sculpture that emulate antique Chinese vases and scholar's rocks — rocks collected for their unusual and evocative forms. "Made to seduce and then betray, Saxe's elegant vessels present provocative concepts," curator Martha Drexler Lynn wrote for his 1993 retrospective at LACMA, "The Clay Art of Adrian Saxe.

Har Gobind Khorana, who rose from poverty in rural India to become a giant of modern biology, winning the Nobel Prize in 1968 for work that helped decipher the genetic code and explain how cells make proteins, died Nov. 9 in Concord, Mass. He was 89. Khorana died of natural causes, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was an emeritus professor of biology and chemistry. Described by colleagues as brilliant and humble, Khorana shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with two other scientists, Robert W. Holley of Cornell University and Marshall W. Nirenberg of the National Institutes of Health.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said Tuesday that genetic tests directly marketed to consumers should be allowed only under a doctor's supervision. Personal testing, which is mainly available online from firms operating outside traditional medical institutions, can produce ambiguous or misleading results without proper analysis, panel members said. "I would suggest that we are not ready yet to put this completely in the consumer's hands," said panelist Joann Boughman of the American Society of Human Genetics.

When scientists announced last week that they had identified 150 genetic features that could be used to predict whether a person will live past 100, the public was intrigued (and I reported on it myself) -- but fellow scientists were skeptical. A few aspects of the study raised red flags for geneticists. First, the impressive 77% prediction accuracy was unheard of for similar types of reports, and particularly stood out given the relatively small number of subjects for this study.

The most sweeping federal anti-discrimination law in nearly 20 years takes effect today, prohibiting employers from hiring, firing or determining promotions based on genetic makeup. Additionally, health insurers will not be allowed to consider a person's genetics -- such as predisposition for Parkinson's disease -- to set insurance rates or deny coverage. Not since the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 has the federal government implemented such far-reaching workplace protections.

In April 2008, the blogosphere was abuzz with news that someone was auctioning then-candidate Barack Obama's half-eaten breakfast on EBay, along with silverware purported to contain his DNA. This episode led some to speculate that the DNA of one or both of the presidential candidates would be surreptitiously analyzed and their genetic information broadcast before the election for all to examine.

In April 2008, the blogosphere was abuzz with news that someone was auctioning then-candidate Barack Obama's half-eaten breakfast on EBay, along with silverware purported to contain his DNA. This episode led some to speculate that the DNA of one or both of the presidential candidates would be surreptitiously analyzed and their genetic information broadcast before the election for all to examine.

Har Gobind Khorana, who rose from poverty in rural India to become a giant of modern biology, winning the Nobel Prize in 1968 for work that helped decipher the genetic code and explain how cells make proteins, died Nov. 9 in Concord, Mass. He was 89. Khorana died of natural causes, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was an emeritus professor of biology and chemistry. Described by colleagues as brilliant and humble, Khorana shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with two other scientists, Robert W. Holley of Cornell University and Marshall W. Nirenberg of the National Institutes of Health.

The National Institutes of Health quietly blocked public access to databases of patient DNA profiles after learning of a study that found the genetic information may not be as anonymous as previously believed, The Times has learned. Institute officials took the unusual step Monday and removed two databases on its public website. The databases contained the genetic information of more than 60,000 cooperating patients. Scientists began posting the information publicly eight months ago to help further medical research.

My MATERNAL grandmother had Alzheimer's disease. Before she died, she forgot our names, our faces and, eventually, how to speak and think. But my grandfather's heartbreak was the most painful to witness. I remember watching the two of them on the sofa together in the months before she died. My grandfather, a sometimes severe man not overly disposed to expressions of tender emotion, cooed into my grandmother's ear: "My bride, oh my bride. I love you. Do you hear me? I love you."