Category Archives: Genetics

OG DNA Genetics recently disclosed a licensing agreement in conjunction with Green Peak Innovations, a medical cannabis producer and distributor in the Michigan market.

This arrangement will concede Green Peak Innovations consent to the DNA brand and access to their genetics portfolio for use at the companys cannabis cultivation and processing plant in Harvest Park, Michigan. Additionally to growing DNA genetics, Green Peak has entered the retail sector, with several locations around the state.

The recent permit of adult-use cannabis police in Michigan will enable Green Peak to supply recreational and medical users high-quality strains.

Want to hear exclusive updates on the adult-use licensing process? Check out the next meetup with MRA Executive Director, Andrew Brisbo on Dec. 18 at the Benzinga Headquarters! Get your tickets here before they sell out!

"By partnering with Green Peak Innovations, we position ourselves to expand into the rapidly developing Michigan cannabis market alongside a proven and trusted cannabis producer and distributor," said Charles Phillips, CEO of DNA Genetics.

Jeff Radway, CEO of Green Peak Innovations said, "We appreciate what DNA has accomplished for the cannabis industry and are excited to partner with them. We believe that by incorporating DNAs library of best-in-class cultivars and award-winning genetics into our facility, we can further enhance our ability to deliver the highest-quality products to Michigan and eventually the entire United States."

2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

View original post here:
DNA Genetics Announces Agreement With Green Peak To Make The Most Of Michigan Adult-Use Cannabis Market - Benzinga

The first study resulting from the GenomeAsia 100K project has revealed that Asia has at least ten distinct genetic ancestral lines, compared to the single genetic lineage found in northern Europe.

The results were found from the genomic sequencing of 598 individuals belonging to 55 ethnic groups from India. The project is set to expand to cover the genomes of 100,000 individuals across southeast Asia.

To put it into context, imagine we looked at all people of European descent and based on the level of their genetic diversity, observed that they could all be grouped into just one ancestral lineage or population, said Stephan C. Schuster, professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Now, if we took that same approach with our new data from people of Asian descent, then based on the much higher levels of genetic diversity observed we would say that there are ten different ancestral groups or lineages in Asia.

India has long been underrepresented in global genetic databanks. India represents almost twenty percent of the worlds population and is on track to become the worlds most populous nation in the coming decades. Despite this, only 0.2 percent of fully mapped genomes in global databanks are of Indian origin.

In adding genetic diversity to the global databanks, the GenomeAsia project, therefore, is vital as it allows for the analysis of diseases and conditions linked to a genetic origin that is unique among the ethnic groups present in Asia.

Despite low coverage in global databanks, current information on Indian genetics has identified six genes that are unique among the Indian population. These genes all present unique risk factors in the development of diabetes. To an extent, this explains part of the increase in prevalence of diabetes within India, with the unique genetic risk factors combining with increasingly unhealthy lifestyles to rapidly increase the rates of diabetes.

We have a great opportunity to apply genomics in India to understand, manage and treat diseases. Genomic analysis of our unique population groups and disease cohorts will lead to identification of genetic mutations and drug targets not just for India but for the whole world, said Sam Santhosh, chief executive officer of genomics-driven research and diagnostics company MedGenome and one of the study authors.

This is a position also held by the Indian government, with increased investment into genome sequencing sourced from the Centre. The potential benefits to the healthcare system are both considerable and multifaceted. Knowledge of unique risks among Indias population can allow for considerable improvements to preventative healthcare, as well as drug targeting in order to make use of the most effective drugs for the individual.

Like Loading...

Related

Read more from the original source:
The many ancestral genetic lines of India - Hyderus Cyf

A genetic variant found in about 3% of people of African ancestry is a more significant cause of heart failure than previously believed, according to a multi-institution study led by researchers at Penn Medicine. The researchers also found that this type of heart failure is underdiagnosed. According to their study, 44% of TTR V122Ivariant carriers older than age 50 had heart failure, but only 11% of these individuals had been diagnosed with hATTR-CM. The average time to diagnosis was three years, indicating both high rates of underdiagnoses and prolonged time to appropriate diagnosis

This study suggests that workup for amyloid cardiomyopathy and genetic testing of TTR should be considered, when appropriate, to identify patients at risk for the disease and intervene before they develop more severe symptoms or heart failure, said the studys lead author Scott Damrauer, M.D., an assistant professor of Surgery at Penn Medicine and a vascular surgeon at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center. (Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.)

In this study, researchers from Penn Medicine and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai used a genome-first approach, performing DNA sequencing of 9,694 individuals of African and Latino ancestry enrolled in either the Penn Medicine BioBank (PMBB) or the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai BioMe biobank (BioMe). Researchers identified TTR V122I carriers and then examined longitudinal electronic health record-linked genetic data to determine which of the carriers had evidence of heart failure.

The findings, which were published today in JAMA, are particularly important given the US Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) approval of the first therapy (tafamidis) for ATTR-CM in May 2019. Prior to tafamidiss approval, treatment was largely limited to supportive care for heart failure symptoms and, in rare cases, heart transplant.

Our findings suggest that hATTR-CM is a more common cause of heart failure than its perceived to be, and that physicians are not sufficiently considering the diagnosis in certain patients who present with heart failure, said the studys corresponding author Daniel J. Rader, M.D., chair of the Department of Genetics at Penn Medicine. With the recent advances in treatment, its critical to identify patients at risk for the disease and, when appropriate, perform the necessary testing to produce an earlier diagnosis and make the effective therapy available.

hATTR-CM, also known as cardiac amyloidosis, typically manifests in older patients and is caused by the buildup of abnormal deposits of a specific transthyretin protein known as amyloid in the walls of the heart. The heart walls become stiff, resulting in the inability of the left ventricle to properly relax and adequately pump blood out of the heart. However, this type of heart failurewhich presents similar to hypertensive heart disease is common, and the diagnosis of hATTR-CM is often not considered.

Tafamidis meglumine is a non-NSAID benzoxazole derivative that binds to TTR with high affinity and selectivity. TTR acts by transporting the retinol-binding protein-vitamin A complex. It is also a minor transporter of thyroxine in blood. Its tetrameric structure can become amyloidogenic by undergoing rate-limiting dissociation and monomer misfolding.

See the original post here:
Penn Team Finds Genetic Variant Largely Found in Patients of African Descent that Increases Heart Failure Risk - Clinical OMICs News

Veritas Genetics had big plans to lower the price of sequencing the human genome, making it on par with the price of buying an Apple Watch or a fancy dinner.

The company, which was the first in the world to map out a person's DNA for less than $1,000 back in 2016, just shared with customers via email that it is ceasing operations in the U.S.

"Due to an unexpected adverse financing situation, we are being forced to suspend our operations in the U.S. for the time being," the email, which was viewed by CNBC, reads. "We are currently assessing all paths forward, including strategic options."

The company also laid off the bulk of its employees based in the U.S., about 50 people, earlier this week, according to a source familiar with the company. The source asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak for Veritas Genetics.

"I can clarify this temporarily affects U.S. operations only," a spokesperson for the company said. "All of the customers outside of the U.S. will continue to be served by Veritas Europe and Latin America."

Veritas, which made this year's CNBC Disruptor 50 list, hoped to expand to millions more consumers in the coming years by bringing down the price of whole genome sequencing to just a few hundred dollars. It raised more than $50 million in financing since it got its start in 2015.

But the company's investors, including Simcere Pharmaceutical and Lilly Asia Ventures, are based in China, at a time when the Trump administration is cracking down on Chinese firms making investments in U.S. companies. Earlier this year, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States,or CFIUS, forced a health-tech company called PatientsLikeMe to find a buyer after ordering its Chinese owner to divest its stake. PatientsLikeMe eventually sold to UnitedHealth.

For Veritas, it meant that new investors who were interested in the business got skittish because of the potential for oversight from CFIUS, according to the person familiar with the company. As a result, Veritas has also been in talks with potential acquirers in recent months, said the person.

If Veritas is able to figure out a path forward, it hopes to be competitive with companies such as Ancestry and 23andMe by offering more information for about the same price. 23andMe has dabbled with offering sequencing to its customers, but currently provides only genotyping services, meaning it looks at specific parts of the genome which are known to be associated with a certain condition or trait.

While 23andMe and Ancestry primarily sell tests for people interested in their ancestral composition and wellness traits, Veritas has long stressed that it's different because it provides potentially actionable insights into its users' health.

Veritas' decision to stop selling its tests in the U.S. comes as other consumer-facing DNA testing companies report that sales have slowed. One potential factor is that people have grown more concerned about protecting their privacy, especially in the wake of high-profile news events such as the Golden State Killer case. That stoked fears about whether individuals could be found and convicted for past crimes based on distant relatives' DNA.

But for Veritas, which bills itself as more of a medical company, sales of its tests have been increasing since it dropped its price in July, according to the person familiar.

Veritas in November experienced a security breach that included some customer information, the start-up confirmed to Bloomberg. The company stressed that only a handful of people were affected.

Follow @CNBCtech on Twitter for the latest tech industry news.

Visit link:
Veritas Genetics, the start-up that can sequence a human genome for less than $600, ceases US operations and is in talks with potential buyers - CNBC

Caris Life Sciences has announced it will begin offering Ambry Genetics 67- gene CancerNext Expanded panel to evaluate hereditary risks for cancer. That test will now be available combined with Caris somatic (tumor) tests that analyze a cancers detailed molecular makeup. In a release, Caris says this will be: The most comprehensive, clinically relevant molecular and genetic offering on the market today to guide treatment and management of cancer. The combined Caris and Ambry testing is already available nationwide.

We are committed to providing clinicians with high-quality information they can use to inform treatment decisions, said David D. Halbert, Caris Life Sciences Chairman, CEO and founder. By partnering with Ambry Genetics to better inform patient care, we are able to provide clinicians a greater ability to learn about a cancers molecular composition.

According to the National Cancer Institute, about 10% of cancers are hereditary. Inherited cancers often occur at a relativelyearly age and involve pathogenic variants in one or more genes. The most common hereditary cancer syndromes in women include hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome, Lynch syndrome, LiFraumeni syndrome, Cowden syndrome, PeutzJeghers syndrome, and hereditary diffuse gastric cancer. A hereditary cancer risk assessment identifies patients and families who may be at increased risk of developing certain types of cancer.

Caris currently offers clinicians Caris Molecular Intelligence, a proprietary, comprehensive tumor profiling approach that assesses DNA, RNA, and proteins that are unique to an individuals cancer, among other products. The Molecular Intelligence test reveals a molecular blueprint aimed to guide more precise and individualized treatment decisions.

Through the partnership, Caris will now also offer Ambrys CancerNext-Expandedhereditary cancer panel, which analyzes 67 genes associated with an increased hereditary risk of cancer, including brain, breast, colon, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, renal, uterine, and many other cancers. This test identifies inherited risks for cancer in order for clinicians to accurately diagnose, treat, and manage cancer risks for each patients needs.

To best diagnose and treat cancer, clinicians must understand whether patients have mutations in genes associated with an increased risk for hereditary cancer, said Aaron Elliott, Chief Executive Officer of Ambry. Caris molecular tests combined with Ambrys germline genetic testing, give clinicians the most comprehensive, clinically relevant molecular profile on the market to guide treatment and management.

Being able to simultaneously conduct comprehensive tumor genomic testing and multi-gene germline sequencing is invaluable, especially for sick patients at the beginning of their cancer journey, said Michael J. Hall, M.D., and chair, Department of Clinical Genetics at Fox Chase Cancer Center. This is information I can immediately begin using for my patients to more accurately diagnose them and to better individualize their treatments.

In further news from Caris, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) updated their treatment guidelines for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), which stress the importance ofRNA profilingand noteDNA-based next-generation sequencing may under-detectNTRK1andNTRK3fusions.Caris offers a suite of molecular profiling offerings, including whole transcriptome sequencing with MI Transcriptome which they say provides themost comprehensive and unique RNA analysis available and covers all 22,000 genes.

See the rest here:
Caris Life Sciences, Ambry Genetics Team on New Hereditary Cancer Panel - Clinical OMICs News

Australian agriculture is rapidly breeding out diversity within farmed animals, genetics which could one day be the key to stopping diseases and adapting to changing environments.

The University of Western Australia's Catie Gressier said while extinction and biodiversity were issues often associated with native species, heritage and rare breeds of agricultural animals were also under threat, and many had already been lost.

"It's really quite alarming," she said.

"Globally, since the early '90s, we've been losing a breed a month it's a really massive issue.

"With the industrialisation of agriculture, there's been a really strong focus on profitability and there's been a real shift towards a small number of productive hybrids that now dominate the industry almost totally worldwide."

Wessex Saddleback pigs are 'at risk' of extinction in Australia.

(Supplied: James Bennett)

Wessex Saddleback pigs are 'at risk' of extinction in Australia.

Dr Gressier said most breeds had been lost over the past 30 years with market forces dominating what breeds were farmed for meat.

And she said that could be to the peril of agriculture's long-term sustainability.

"Having a biodiverse environment is so critical in order to have a responsiveness and an adaptability to unforeseen changes occurring climatically [and] economically, in terms of consumer preferences, and also in terms of profitability," she said.

Dr Gressier pointed to the current threat of African Swine Fever on the pig industry as a global disease where a range of genetics within existing breeds could be examined for naturally occurring tolerance or resistance.

British White cattle is known for its high eating quality but it is listed as "at risk" by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia.

(ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky)

British White cattle is known for its high eating quality but it is listed as "at risk" by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia.

ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky

"Different genetic pools have different capabilities to demonstrate resistance to various diseases," she said.

"We need to have that agility for these new risks.

"In terms of improving stock, a diversity of genetics is really valuable but [so is] mitigating against some of the risks around disease and climate changes that are occurring."

Poultry breeders say it is becoming very difficult to get new genetics for some types of ducks and chickens.

(Contributed: Pip Rumble)

Poultry breeders say it is becoming very difficult to get new genetics for some types of ducks and chickens.

Dr Gressier said Australia had no cryo-conservation facilities to collect and store sperm and embryos and laws for some species, such as pigs, did not permit the importation of genetic material.

"The whole conservation effort is in the hands of individual farmers, volunteer organisations, and rare breed societies such as the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia," she said.

She urged consumers to buy meat from rare breed animals in order to support continued commercial production.

"For example, pork that's coming from Hampshires or Tamworths or Wessex Saddlebacks [pig breeds] that are in a really endangered states," she said.

"If you can support farmers that are growing these breeds that's a really positive step.

"To preserve these animals in our economic situation, it really is about finding how they can have some sort of economic viability."

In the West Australian wheatbelt, Linton and Kerry Batt have run a commercial herd of Berkshire pigs for the past 10 years.

Berkshires produce fewer pigs per litter and are slower to grow in comparison to the Landrace or Large White breeds which dominate commercial piggeries.

Mr Batt said he marketed his Berkshire pork as being the wagyu of the pork sector.

Linton Batt supplies a boutique market with his Berkshire pork, which he says competes on flavour.

(Supplied: Linton Batt)

Linton Batt supplies a boutique market with his Berkshire pork, which he says competes on flavour.

"Our production is aimed at a very small niche; it's a domestic market for super premium pork," he said.

"We've done the numbers, and we know that we need a price premium for our production.

"There is only a small market of people who will pay that price but for us, we're small enough to fill that gap, along with some other excellent Berkshire breeders, and it's worth doing."

Mr Batt said in order for his operation, and his pigs' genetics to survive, he is careful to keep the business viable but is concerned about the agricultural sector losing genetics.

"It should be a concern for everybody; we're seeing gene pools shrink and the loss of diversity," he said.

"We're always looking at the numbers to make sure they are viable and that the business stands on its own merit."

Tina the Wessex saddleback pig. Her breed is listed as "at risk" of extinction by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia.

(ABC Hobart: Damien Peck)

Tina the Wessex saddleback pig. Her breed is listed as "at risk" of extinction by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia.

Dr Gressier said the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia had a comprehensive list of animals lost, critical, endangered, or vulnerable.

It lists six breeds of sheep as lost, four of pigs, and 10 of cattle.

"In Australia we used to have a really diverse dairy industry with a number of breeds producing milk," she said.

"Now it's about 70 per cent Holstein which produce milk in the kinds of volumes of scale required to meet market demands.

"Chickens are also faring really poorly, particularly meat birds.

"There are very few farmers who are managing to commercially produce meat chickens that aren't the Ross or the Cobb breed."

Dr Gressier is about to lead a UWA-based study of rare breeds being farmed across Australia to understand why farmers stick with rare breed farming and how their work can be better supported.

View post:
Extinction of farm animals threatens food security and genetic diversity - ABC News

Members of the Crop Wild Relatives project from the Crop Trust joined their research partners in Nepal on an expedition to collect wild relatives of rice, okra and eggplant in October 2017. Hannes Dempewolf of the Crop Trust says the elephants kept the researchers high enough off the ground that they didn't have to worry about any snakes that might be lurking. L.M. Salazar/Crop Trust hide caption

Members of the Crop Wild Relatives project from the Crop Trust joined their research partners in Nepal on an expedition to collect wild relatives of rice, okra and eggplant in October 2017. Hannes Dempewolf of the Crop Trust says the elephants kept the researchers high enough off the ground that they didn't have to worry about any snakes that might be lurking.

Call it a tale of science and derring-do. An international team of researchers has spent six years fanning across the globe, gathering thousands of samples of wild relatives of crops. Their goal: to preserve genetic diversity that could help key crops survive in the face of climate change. At times, the work put these scientists in some pretty extreme situations.

Just ask Hannes Dempewolf. Two years ago, the plant geneticist found himself in a rainforest in Nepal, at the foot of the Himalayas. He was riding on the back of an elephant to avoid snakes on the ground and to scare away any tigers that might be lurking about. Then all of a sudden came an attack from above.

"There were leeches dropping on us from all directions," Dempewolf recalls "bloodsucking leeches."

Now, this is far from where he thought he'd be when he got his Ph.D. But as a senior scientist and head of global initiatives at the Crop Trust, Dempewolf has been overseeing an ambitious international collaboration. More than 100 scientists in 25 countries have been venturing out to collect wild relatives of domesticated crops like lentils, potatoes, chickpeas and rice that people rely on around the world. The Crop Trust has just released a report detailing the results of this massive effort, which secured more than 4,600 seed samples of 371 wild relatives of key domesticated crops that the world relies on.

The "collecting teams are heading out into wild places and hard-to-reach corners within their countries to try to find and track down some of these wild species that have either never been collected before or are very underrepresented in seed banks," Dempewolf explains. So he says it's not surprising that many of the stories coming out of the project have an Indiana Jones-like sense of adventure to them.

Take, for example, an effort to collect Oryza glumaepatula, a wild rice species found in Latin America. Griselda Arrieta Espinoza, a crop genetics and biotechnology researcher at the University of Costa Rica, was part of a collecting team that set out to northern Costa Rica to collect a particular population of this wild rice that grows in a river. "Collecting it was quite the adventure," she tells me in Spanish because the river is also home to crocodiles.

While the effort was dangerous, Arrieta says it was also worth it, because Oryza glumaepatula is known to be resistant to a fungus that attacks domesticated rice grown around the world. And she notes that researchers in Brazil have already managed to cross Oryza glumaepatula with domesticated rice to improve crop yields.

Jamal Mabrouki, a technician with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, works on a grasspea breeding project at ICARDA's facilities at Marchouch station, Morocco. Michael Major/Crop Trust hide caption

Jamal Mabrouki, a technician with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, works on a grasspea breeding project at ICARDA's facilities at Marchouch station, Morocco.

The overall goal of the Crop Trust project is to make sure that this kind of valuable genetic diversity is preserved in seed banks before wild crop relatives disappear as urban development encroaches on once wild habitats. Dempewolf says that this is already happening.

"Some of the populations that the [research teams] were hoping to collect, when they reached the areas where they had seen populations before, they had disappeared," Dempewolf says.

Steven Tanksley, a professor emeritus of plant breeding at Cornell University, who was not involved in the Crop Trust project, praised the effort. He notes that the domesticated crops we eat today were selected from wild plants over thousands of years. He says this "natural reservoir of diversity ... has allowed plant breeding to attempt to keep pace with the demands of the growing human population."

That diversity took shape over millions of years, molded by natural selection, so "when you lose it, you really can't repeat that process," says Tanksley, who is also chief technology officer for Nature Source Improved Plants, which focuses on the genetic improvement of plants.

In the past, he notes, breeders have used wild crop relatives to improve disease resistance in many domesticated crops, including tomatoes, potatoes, rice and wheat.

A growing global population and changing environmental conditions because of climate change present urgent new challenges for crop breeders, Tanksley says.

"If we're going to have a sustainable world with a sustainable environment, we have to produce a lot more food per hectare than we ever have in the past," he says, adding, "I think people don't really grasp that the urgency of it."

And without the genetic diversity of wild crop relatives, he says, the world will have little chance of keeping up with growing demand for food.

Here is the original post:
Raiders Of The Lost Crops: Scientists Race Against Time To Save Genetic Diversity - NPR

In these times of alarming disregard for scientific data (were talking to you, climate change deniers), lets hear it for science, specifically the astonishing gains made in the field of genetics and genetic testing.

Our three-part Past Lives series highlights the extraordinary resources now readily available to anyone curious about their family ancestry. Easy access to family records on the internet and the mapping of the human genome allows us to peer into our genetic past to learn more about who we are. And we can do both kinds of research from the comfort of our own homes.

For Jews, this has been a blessing for the most part. Unlike those Americans descended from Western European populations who can turn to comprehensive written archives, such as baptismal and marriage records, most Ashkenazi Jews like African Americans and Hispanic Americans lack the paper trail to trace their ancestry back further than a few generations.

Now, with the evolution of genetic testing, we can pinpoint to a remarkable degree of precision the composition of our ethnicity and where we came from. And all it takes is a simple cheek swab.

For some, discovering Jewish roots opens the door to new connections and layers of spiritual meaning.

As our stories show, this technology is about more than percentages and places on the map. For some, discovering the very existence of Jewish roots is a personal marvel, opening the door to new connections and layers of spiritual meaning.

However, as with any technology, ethical concerns run rampant.

Are we now as a global kehillah to rely on DNA test results as a proving ground for belonging to the Jewish people? What about those who convert to Judaism and might hail from different backgrounds? When their DNA pie chart comes back with zero percent Jewishness, does that mean they are any less Jewish?

Though matrilineal descent long ago enshrined a genetic aspect to Judaism, have we not seen enough of eugenics, racism, white nationalism and hate-fueled violence to check a rush to embrace anything that smacks of genetic purity?

These concerns have come to the forefront in Israel, where for the past two years the Chief Rabbinate has been using genetic testing to confirm the Jewishness of immigrants from the former Soviet Union seeking marriage licenses, in cases where the applicants dont have sufficient documentation of their status. Dozens of young couples, and their close relatives, have been humiliated in this way, and the practice is now being challenged before Israels High Court, brought there by the largely immigrant Yisrael Beiteinu party.

Scientific discoveries often involve thorny ethical questions. They must be faced openly.

Originally posted here:
The thrill of genetic genealogical discoveries should be tempered by ethical concerns - The Jewish News of Northern California

TUMXUK, China In a dusty city in the Xinjiang region on Chinas western frontier, the authorities are testing the rules of science.

With a million or more ethnic Uighurs and others from predominantly Muslim minority groups swept up in detentions across Xinjiang, officials in Tumxuk have gathered blood samples from hundreds of Uighurs part of a mass DNA collection effort dogged by questions about consent and how the data will be used.

In Tumxuk, at least, there is a partial answer: Chinese scientists are trying to find a way to use a DNA sample to create an image of a persons face.

The technology, which is also being developed in the United States and elsewhere, is in the early stages of development and can produce rough pictures good enough only to narrow a manhunt or perhaps eliminate suspects. But given the crackdown in Xinjiang, experts on ethics in science worry that China is building a tool that could be used to justify and intensify racial profiling and other state discrimination against Uighurs.

In the long term, experts say, it may even be possible for the Communist government to feed images produced from a DNA sample into the mass surveillance and facial recognition systems that it is building, tightening its grip on society by improving its ability to track dissidents and protesters as well as criminals.

Some of this research is taking place in labs run by Chinas Ministry of Public Security, and at least two Chinese scientists working with the ministry on the technology have received funding from respected institutions in Europe. International scientific journals have published their findings without examining the origin of the DNA used in the studies or vetting the ethical questions raised by collecting such samples in Xinjiang.

In papers, the Chinese scientists said they followed norms set by international associations of scientists, which would require that the men in Tumxuk (pronounced TUM-shook) gave their blood willingly. But in Xinjiang, many people have no choice. The government collects samples under the veneer of a mandatory health checkup program, according to Uighurs who have fled the country. Those placed in internment camps two of which are in Tumxuk also have little choice.

The police prevented reporters from The New York Times from interviewing Tumxuk residents, making verifying consent impossible. Many residents had vanished in any case. On the road to one of the internment camps, an entire neighborhood had been bulldozed into rubble.

Growing numbers of scientists and human rights activists say the Chinese government is exploiting the openness of the international scientific community to harness research into the human genome for questionable purposes.

Already, China is exploring using facial recognition technology to sort people by ethnicity. It is also researching how to use DNA to tell if a person is a Uighur. Research on the genetics behind the faces of Tumxuks men could help bridge the two.

The Chinese government is building essentially technologies used for hunting people, said Mark Munsterhjelm, an assistant professor at the University of Windsor in Ontario who tracks Chinese interest in the technology.

In the world of science, Dr. Munsterhjelm said, theres a kind of culture of complacency that has now given way to complicity.

Sketching someones face based solely on a DNA sample sounds like science fiction. It isnt.

The process is called DNA phenotyping. Scientists use it to analyze genes for traits like skin color, eye color and ancestry. A handful of companies and scientists are trying to perfect the science to create facial images sharp and accurate enough to identify criminals and victims.

The Maryland police used it last year to identify a murder victim. In 2015, the police in North Carolina arrested a man on two counts of murder after crime-scene DNA indicated the killer had fair skin, brown or hazel eyes, dark hair, and little evidence of freckling. The man pleaded guilty.

Despite such examples, experts widely question phenotypings effectiveness. Currently, it often produces facial images that are too smooth or indistinct to look like the face being replicated. DNA cannot indicate other factors that determine how people look, such as age or weight. DNA can reveal gender and ancestry, but the technology can be hit or miss when it comes to generating an image as specific as a face.

Phenotyping also raises ethical issues, said Pilar Ossorio, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The police could use it to round up large numbers of people who resemble a suspect, or use it to target ethnic groups. And the technology raises fundamental issues of consent from those who never wanted to be in a database to begin with.

What the Chinese government is doing should be a warning to everybody who kind of goes along happily thinking, How could anyone be worried about these technologies? Dr. Ossorio said.

With the ability to reconstruct faces, the Chinese police would have yet another genetic tool for social control. The authorities have already gathered millions of DNA samples in Xinjiang. They have also collected data from the hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and members of other minority groups locked up in detention camps in Xinjiang as part of a campaign to stop terrorism. Chinese officials have depicted the camps as benign facilities that offer vocational training, though documents describe prisonlike conditions, while testimonies from many who have been inside cite overcrowding and torture.

Even beyond the Uighurs, China has the worlds largest DNA database, with more than 80 million profiles as of July, according to Chinese news reports.

If I were to find DNA at a crime scene, the first thing I would do is to find a match in the 80 million data set, said Peter Claes, an imaging specialist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, who has studied DNA-based facial reconstruction for a decade. But what do you do if you dont find a match?

Though the technology is far from accurate, he said, DNA phenotyping can bring a solution.

To unlock the genetic mysteries behind the human face, the police in China turned to Chinese scientists with connections to leading institutions in Europe.

One of them was Tang Kun, a specialist in human genetic diversity at the Shanghai-based Partner Institute for Computational Biology, which was founded in part by the Max Planck Society, a top research group in Germany.

The German organization also provided $22,000 a year in funding to Dr. Tang because he conducted research at an institute affiliated with it, said Christina Beck, a spokeswoman for the Max Planck Society. Dr. Tang said the grant had run out before he began working with the police, according to Dr. Beck.

Another expert involved in the research was Liu Fan, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Genomics who is also an adjunct assistant professor at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Both were named as authors of a 2018 study on Uighur faces in the journal Hereditas (Beijing), published by the government-backed Chinese Academy of Sciences. They were also listed as authors of a study examining DNA samples taken last year from 612 Uighurs in Tumxuk that appeared in April in Human Genetics, a journal published by Springer Nature, which also publishes the influential journal Nature.

Both papers named numerous other authors, including Li Caixia, chief forensic scientist at the Ministry of Public Security.

In an interview, Dr. Tang said he did not know why he was named as an author of the April paper, though he said it might have been because his graduate students worked on it. He said he had ended his affiliation with the Chinese police in 2017 because he felt their biological samples and research were subpar.

To be frank, you overestimate how genius the Chinese police is, said Dr. Tang, who had recently shut down a business focused on DNA testing and ancestry.

Like other geneticists, Dr. Tang has long been fascinated by Uighurs because their mix of European and East Asian features can help scientists identify genetic variants associated with physical traits. In his earlier studies, he said, he collected blood samples himself from willing subjects.

Dr. Tang said the police approached him in 2016, offering access to DNA samples and funding. At the time, he was a professor at the Partner Institute for Computational Biology, which is run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences but was founded in 2005 in part with funding from the Max Planck Society and still receives some grants and recommendations for researchers from the German group.

Dr. Beck, the Max Planck spokeswoman, said Dr. Tang had told the organization that he began working with the police in 2017, after it had stopped funding his research a year earlier.

But an employment ad on a government website suggests the relationship began earlier. The Ministry of Public Security placed the ad in 2016 seeking a researcher to help explore the DNA of physical appearance traits. It said the person would report to Dr. Tang and to Dr. Li, the ministrys chief forensic scientist.

Dr. Tang did not respond to additional requests for comment. The Max Planck Society said Dr. Tang had not reported his work with the police as required while holding a position at the Partner Institute, which he did not leave until last year.

The Max Planck Society takes this issue very seriously said will ask its ethics council to review the matter, Dr. Beck said.

It is not clear when Dr. Liu, the assistant professor at Erasmus University Medical Center, began working with the Chinese police. Dr. Liu says in his online rsum that he is a visiting professor at the Ministry of Public Security at a lab for on-site traceability technology.

In 2015, while holding a position with Erasmus, he also took a post at the Beijing Institute of Genomics. Two months later, the Beijing institute signed an agreement with the Chinese police to establish an innovation center to study cutting-edge technologies urgently needed by the public security forces, according to the institutes website.

Dr. Liu did not respond to requests for comment.

Erasmus said that Dr. Liu remained employed by the university as a part-time researcher and that his position in China was totally independent of the one in the Netherlands. It added that Dr. Liu had not received any funding from the university for the research papers, though he listed his affiliation with Erasmus on the studies. Erasmus made inquiries about his research and determined there was no need for further action, according to a spokeswoman.

Erasmus added that it could not be held responsible for any research that has not taken place under the auspices of Erasmus by Dr. Liu, even though it continued to employ him.

Still, Dr. Lius work suggests that sources of funding could be mingled.

In September, he was one of seven authors of a paper on height in Europeans published in the journal Forensic Science International. The paper said it was backed by a grant from the European Union and by a grant from Chinas Ministry of Public Security.

Dr. Tang said he was unaware of the origins of the DNA samples examined in the two papers, the 2018 paper in Hereditas (Beijing) and the Human Genetics paper published in April. The publishers of the papers said they were unaware, too.

Hereditas (Beijing) did not respond to a request for comment. Human Genetics said it had to trust scientists who said they had received informed consent from donors. Local ethics committees are generally responsible for verifying that the rules were followed, it said.

Springer Nature said on Monday that it had strengthened its guidelines on papers involving vulnerable groups of people and that it would add notes of concern to previously published papers.

In the papers, the authors said their methods had been approved by the ethics committee of the Institute of Forensic Science of China. That organization is part of the Ministry of Public Security, Chinas police.

With 161,000 residents, most of them Uighurs, the agricultural settlement of Tumxuk is governed by the powerful Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a quasi-military organization formed by decommissioned soldiers sent to Xinjiang in the 1950s to develop the region.

The state news media described Tumxuk, which is dotted with police checkpoints, as one of the gateways and major battlefields for Xinjiangs security work.

In January 2018, the town got a high-tech addition: a forensic DNA lab run by the Institute of Forensic Science of China, the same police research group responsible for the work on DNA phenotyping.

Procurement documents showed the lab relied on software systems made by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Massachusetts company, to work with genetic sequencers that analyze DNA fragments. Thermo Fisher announced in February that it would suspend sales to the region, saying in a statement that it had decided to do so after undertaking fact-specific assessments.

For the Human Genetics study, samples were processed by a higher-end sequencer made by an American firm, Illumina, according to the authors. It is not clear who owned the sequencer. Illumina did not respond to requests for comment.

The police sought to prevent two Times reporters from conducting interviews in Tumxuk, stopping them upon arrival at the airport for interrogation. Government minders then tailed the reporters and later forced them to delete all photos, audio and video recordings taken on their phones in Tumxuk.

Uighurs and human rights groups have said the authorities collected DNA samples, images of irises and other personal data during mandatory health checks.

In an interview, Zhou Fang, the head of the health commission in Tumxuk, said residents voluntarily accepted free health checks under a public health program known as Physicals for All and denied that DNA samples were collected.

Ive never heard of such a thing, he said.

The questions angered Zhao Hai, the deputy head of Tumxuks foreign affairs office. He called a Times reporter shameless for asking a question linking the health checks with the collection of DNA samples.

Do you think America has the ability to do these free health checks? he asked. Only the Communist Party can do that!

Visit link:
China Uses DNA to Map Faces, With Help From the West - The New York Times

In September, the world of entertainment news buzzed with word that Kim Kardashian West tested positive for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. The star underwent further tests, however, resulting in a diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis instead. While all three autoimmune disorders share some signs and symptoms, psoriatic arthritis is generally considered to have a better prognosis than lupus. That said, the conditions can co-exist and lupus has gotten a reputation for being difficult to diagnose, especially in the absence of the butterfly-shaped rash on ones cheeks and nose.

Im so relieved. The pain is going to come and go sometimes, but I can manage it and this is not going to stop me, Kardashian said in an article in response to receiving her psoriatic arthritis diagnosis. Her relief at not having lupus is understandable, given that lupus can affect a greater number of organs and systems in the body and is considered to be life-threatening.

Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis are examples of some conditions that are often considered when an individual is undergoing diagnosis for certain autoimmune diseases, because they share several symptoms and can trigger positive results in the same diagnostic tests. Kim Kardashian received the initial news that she had lupus or rheumatoid arthritis likely due to positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) test results.

An ANA is a blood test ordered when a doctor, usually a rheumatologist, suspects that a patient has a particular kind of autoimmune disorder. This test checks for the existence of autoantibodies, which are produced when a persons body is, in effect, attacking itself and several areas of the body are affected. A positive ANA test usually indicates that the doctors suspicions are confirmed, and then other factors (like medical and family history) need to be considered and more tests done to arrive at a diagnosis.

Psoriatic arthritis is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, and occurs in women and men equally. While there is no cure, appropriate and early treatment can help prevent major damage to affected parts of the body.

Psoriatic arthritis appears in a minority of individuals who have already been diagnosed with psoriasis, an autoimmune skin condition with which Kim Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, had already been diagnosed. Psoriatic arthritis affects around 520,000 individuals in the United States alone.

The autoimmune condition is believed to be caused by a combination of genetic factors and environmental triggers. So while some people inherit psoriatic arthritis-related genes, only a subset of those individuals will go on to develop the condition. In these cases, the disease could be triggered by other illnesses or infections, various forms of extreme stress, poor diet, smoking, and so on.

Around 40 percent of psoriatic arthritis patients have one or more close family members with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis diagnosis, which strongly indicates that the disease is hereditary. Interestingly, recent research has suggested that psoriasis patients who go on to develop psoriatic arthritis have a different genetic profile than those who do not. And the most well-studied of the psoriatic arthritis genes belong to a family of genes called the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex, which help the body tell the difference between its own proteins and viral or bacterial proteins.

According to Genetics Home Reference by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Variations of several HLA genes seem to affect the risk of developing psoriatic arthritis, as well as the type, severity, and progression of the condition.

Ive been feeling so tired, so nauseous, and my hands are really getting swollen. I feel like I literally am falling apart. My hands are numb, Kardashian said on a recent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

These kinds of descriptions are common in all three conditions lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis though each patient presents with a different array of symptoms, and all with varying degrees of severity. The main symptoms of psoriatic arthritis are pain, stiffness, and swelling in affected joints, along with chronic fatigue. Joints near the end of the fingertips and tips of the toes are often affected, as are bones in the spine.

The symptoms of psoriatic arthritis tend to worsen over time, though some patients experience periods of remission when symptoms temporarily improve. Compared to rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis is more likely to cause swelling in the smallest joints of the fingers and toes, foot pain (in the heel and/or sole of the foot), and lower back pain caused by inflammation in vertebral joints. Patients with psoriatic arthritis are also more likely to experience symptoms on one side of the body or in different appendages on each side (in other words, it tends to be an asymmetric disease), whereas patients with rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to experience symptoms that affect both sides of the body equally (symmetric disease).

Most if not all patients with psoriatic arthritis also have psoriasis, an autoimmune condition that causes red, scaly patches of skin that can be itchy, painful and embarrassing. Psoriasis usually precedes the onset of psoriatic arthritis by several years. People with psoriatic arthritis commonly experience fingernail changes, too, such as the formation of a pitted or ridged nail surface, or the nails become separated from the nail beds.

There are several treatment options for psoriatic arthritis, which include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to reduce inflammation and pain, immunosuppressants to suppress the immune system, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) to slow the progression of the disease, and newer medications that minimize the activity of certain enzymes involved in the inflammatory process. Treatment plans may also involve steroid injections administered directly into affected joints, or joint replacement surgery in cases where the disease has significantly progressed.

Kristen Hovet covers genetics, medical innovations and the intersection of sociology and culture. The North Dakota native is based in Vancouver, Canada, where she is working on a masters degree in health communication at Washington State University. Follow her on her website or Twitter @kristenhovet

Continued here:
Kim Kardashian West's battle with psoriatic arthritis: Will understanding the genetics of the autoimmune disorder point to a cure? - Genetic Literacy...