Study Shows Why You Might, and Might Not, Want to Know Your Genome

Study Shows Why You Might, and Might Not, Want to Know Your Genome
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

April 29, 2010 -- Do you really want to know all of the information encoded in your genes? A thought-provoking new study shows why you might -- and why you might not.

It's not science fiction. It now costs less than $10,000 to learn your own personal genome. Soon it will cost no more than $1,000. What might you learn? Ask Stephen Quake, PhD, a Stanford University bioengineer.

Recently, Quake and colleagues showed that a whole human genome -- his own -- could be unraveled by a single technician using a single machine.

When a 19-year-old relative died suddenly in his sleep, Quake began to wonder whether the information he collected could tell him whether he risked the same fate. He took his genome to cardiologist Euan Ashley, MD, who runs Stanford's hypertrophic cardiomyopathy center.

"This made me start thinking about what doctors are supposed to do when a patient walks into your office, shows you his whole genome, and asks, 'What is in my crystal ball?'" Ashley tells WebMD. "It's a challenge. Lots of people have looked at human genomes, but nobody had ever looked at a single patient before."

Ashley and Quake assembled a large group of Stanford's top researchers. The group pored over all available information on genetic risk and then evaluated millions of the variations in Quake's genetic code.

In the end, it turns out that Quake carries three gene variants linked to sudden cardiac death. Genetic analysis shows he's at increased risk for heart attack, clogged arteries, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.

Does this mean Quake is particularly unlucky? No. Because of the frequency of risk genes in the population, every single person who looks into their genome will find that they carry risk genes for more than one serious or deadly disease.

"It is all bad news," Quake tells WebMD. "After all, there is no genetic basis for happiness or athleticism. It's all about things that make you uncomfortable and ill. You have to have a strong stomach."

While it isn't what you'd call really good news, Quake did learn a number of helpful things. He's genetically more likely to respond to low doses of cholesterol-lowering drugs with a lower risk of side effects (in fact, he's begun taking the drugs even though he's only 40).

And should he ever need the drugs, Quake learned that he's less likely to respond to the blood-thinning drug Plavix than to alternative drugs, and he would need a lower starting dose of warfarin.
Ethical Issues Plague Whole-Genome Test

While there's always bad news from whole-genome sequencing, the fact that a person is at higher risk of a particular disease does not mean they're destined to suffer from it.

"The genome is not destiny. Many things have a chance to influence the outcomes," Quake notes. "There is a genetic component to risk, but there is an environmental component, too. For the vast majority of things about your health, your lifestyle choices and the environment you live in make equal contributions."

Understanding genetic risk isn't easy. Even scientists like Quake need counseling to put personal genetic knowledge into perspective. And right now there are no requirements for companies that offer gene sequencing to provide such counseling, warns Arthur Caplan, PhD, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Amidst all the genome hype, people ignore environmental causes," Caplan tells WebMD. "They say, 'I don't have the gene for breast cancer, but smoke three packs of cigarettes a day and never exercise.' Not having a risk gene for a disease is false security, and having one is not a death sentence. All this has to be explained."

That could be a big problem. In an editorial published alongside their study in the April 30 online issue of The Lancet, Ashley and several of his colleagues note that the average person will discover he or she has about 100 genetic risks.

"Even if [counseling on] that information averaged only three minutes per disorder, this process would take more than five hours of direct patient contact, after many hours of background research," they calculate.

And there are only about 2,500 trained genetic counselors and 1,100 clinical geneticists in North America, all now busy with other work.

And there's another big issue: What do you tell your close relatives, who share many of your genes?

"Finding out about your own risks leads to information about your relatives, which you may try to tell them whether they need to know or not," Caplan says. "If you show up at Thanksgiving screeching about the risk for Alzheimer's you found out you have, your relatives may say, 'Hey, I didn't want to know that."

So who should get their genomes deciphered? Caplan says those who think they are interested should ask themselves some serious questions:

* Do I have a history of any genetic diseases in my family?
* If I got information I could not do anything about, would I still want to know?
* If I get information about risk and it implicates others, how will I handle it?
* Are the people I'm seeking testing from reliable?
* Am I willing to change my lifestyle to reduce the risks I learn about?

And Caplan has one more piece of advice.

"If you're just looking to learn about your overall risk, instead of getting in the car and heading over to the genetic testing facility, you may want to jog over," he says. "And while you're jogging, think about what you really are going to do to reduce your lifetime risk of disease, and jog back."

A Hug

It’s wondrous what a hug can do,

A hug can cheer you when you’re blue
A hug can say, “I love you so”…
Or,…”I’m sad to see you go.”

A hug is,”welcome back again!”
And, “great to see you!” or,
Where’ve you been ?…
A hug can soothe a small child’s pain
And bring a rainbow after rain

The hug! There’s just no doubt about it,
We scarcely could survive without it.
A hug delights and warms and charms,
It must be why God gave us arms!

Hugs are great for fathers and mothers
Sweet for sisters, swell for brothers
And chances are some favorite aunts
Love them more than potted plants

Kittens crave them. Puppies love them.

Heads of state are not above them.
A hug can break the language barrier
And make the dullest day seem merrier

No need to fret about the store of ‘em,
The more you give……..
The more there are of ‘em
So stretch those arms without delay
And give someone a hug today!

One Can Achieve Anyhting

Love is friendship set on fire.
The time to make friends is before you need them.
Compared to friendship, gold is dirt.
There comes a point in life when you realize who matters, who never did, who won’t anymore and who always will. So don’t worry about the people from your past, there’s a reason they didn’t make it to your future.
If you learn to believe in yourself, and not let others bring you down your dreams will come true.

Top 10 You Tube Cover Songs

Killer Fungus=Beware!

Killer fungus seen in Pacific Northwest
By Amanda Gardner, Health.com
April 23, 2010 6:27 p.m. EDT
Health


This strain of C. gattii fungus seems to have mutated relatively recently, researchers say.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Fungus was lethal in about 25 percent of those in the U.S. who have developed infections
* Symptoms of infection include chest pain, a persistent cough, shortness of breath
* Fungus has tended to cause disease in people with weakened immune systems
* It's unlikely that it will spread across the continent via plane or other travel

RELATED TOPICS

* Contagious and Infectious Diseases
* Biology
* Microbiology

(Health.com) -- A rare but life-threatening tropical fungus that causes lung infections in both people and animals has been seen in the Pacific Northwest and could spread, researchers are reporting.

The fungus, known as Cryptococcus gattii (or C. gattii), has infected dozens of humans and animals--including cats, dogs, and dolphins--in Washington and Oregon in the past five years. While rare, the fungus has been lethal in about 25 percent of the people in the U.S. who have developed infections, according to Edmond Byrnes III, a doctoral student in molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University and one of the lead authors of a new study about the fungus.

In the study, Byrnes and his colleagues analyzed 18 cases in people and 21 in animals that occurred in the U.S. between 2005 and 2009.

The symptoms of infection include chest pain, a persistent cough, shortness of breath, fever, and weight loss. The fungus can also cause meningitis, or inflammation of the membranes lining the brain, but can be treated with antifungal drugs. C. gattii is found in soil and trees, but experts haven't yet determined how humans breathe it in.

Byrnes and colleagues have discovered a new, especially dangerous strain of the fungus. This strain--which is confined to Oregon, for now--is "highly virulent," says Byrnes. "Overall it's a pretty low threat, and it's still uncommon in the area, but as the range of the organism expands and the number of cases increases accordingly, it's becoming more of a concern," he says.

The new strain is likely to move into Northern California and other neighboring regions, the researchers say. Other strains of the fungus have been found in people in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and in a bottlenose dolphin as far south as San Diego.

Health.com: Can't stop coughing? 8 possible reasons

The fungus hails from the tropics and may have been carried to North America on imported plants or trees, experts say. It first emerged on this continent in 1999, on Vancouver Island off the coast of British Columbia, where it ultimately infected more than 200 people, killing nearly 9 percent of them.

From there, the fungus is believed to have crossed the border into the U.S. on logging trucks or car tires sometime before 2005, when the first infections were reported in Washington and Oregon. The cases in California "indicate that C. gattii can survive in that habitat," says Yonathan Lewit, a research technician at Duke and a co-author of the new study, which appears in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

Health.com: 7 surprising triggers of lung trouble

The new strain described by Byrnes and his colleagues seems to have mutated relatively recently, and has appeared in humans as well as in cats, dogs, and other animals. (In animals, symptoms include a runny nose and breathing problems, and other strains have been seen in ferrets and llamas too.)

The mutation "is causing major illness in the region, and it's different from what's causing disease on Vancouver Island," says Christina Hull, PhD, an assistant professor of medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, in Madison.

Health.com: What ails you: Cold, flu, or something else?

"It supports the idea that this is a recent change in the organism," says Hull, was not involved in the new research. "That's a little more unnerving than what people had thought before."

In the past, C. gattii has tended to cause disease in people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV/AIDS. (The fungus was found in AIDS patients in Los Angeles, for instance.) But the new strain appears capable of causing respiratory symptoms and meningitis in otherwise healthy people.

Experts aren't sure what makes some individuals more vulnerable to infection and illness. "We've not been able to distinguish these people from the population at large," says Hull. "Are they more likely to be smokers? No. And it's happened across a range of ages and different backgrounds."

Nor is it clear how people are contracting the infections. Although the fungus is found in trees and soil, Hull explains, it's unclear if breathing near a tree carrying the fungus is enough to infect a person. And because the incubation period is unknown, tracing the illness back to the point of infection is nearly impossible.

Health.com: 15 ways to breathe easier when eating

"Our best guess is that it's mostly associated with trees and soil, so certain disturbances might allow the organism to become airborne and more or less float in the area," says Byrnes.

At a news conference on Friday, Oregon public health officials sought to reassure the public that the risk of infection from C. gattii is extremely small. State epidemiologist Katrina Hedberg, M.D., M.P.H., said that officials have identified a little more than 50 cases of infection in people in Oregon, Washington, and California since 2004, the majority of which occurred in people with compromised immune systems. About 10 of the cases proved fatal, she noted.

About 30 infections have been confirmed in animals, added Emilio Debess, the state's public health veterinarian. "This is an extremely rare condition, and it's also rare that people who have been exposed to this particular fungus end up getting disease from it," Dr. Hedberg said. Although physicians and the public should be aware of the fungus and the symptoms of infection, she said, "this is never going to be a very common condition."

Although C. gattii has been found in a North Carolina man who had traveled to San Francisco several months earlier, experts say that the fungus is not readily passed between people (or people and animals), and it's therefore unlikely that it will spread across the continent via plane or other travel.

Experts stress that even people near the epicenter of the outbreak should not be unduly concerned.

Philip Alcabes, Ph.D., an infectious diseases epidemiologist at Hunter College, in New York City, says that genetic changes such as those described by Byrnes are "a pretty normal, expectable evolutionary event in nature that has a slight amount of human fallout."

In fact, he says, if this fungus follows previous patterns, it's very possible that the virulence will decline with time.

And besides, there's not much you can do to protect yourself from it in the meantime.

"There are no real precautions you can take, because it's hard to tell which areas would be more infected or where levels of C. gattii could be higher," Byrnes says.

One artist's extreme palette: Nasser Azam

By: Ben East @ The National

Nasser Azam welcomes me into his gorgeous London studio, full to bursting with all the accoutrements of the successful working artist. It’s comfortable. It’s inspiring. And most of all, it’s warm.

The juxtaposition between the canvas I interrupt him working on and the pieces he’s just completed could not be more marked. Azam has just flown back from perhaps the most extreme environment of all in which to create art: Antarctica.

This isn’t the first time that the Pakistan-born Azam – who gave up a lucrative role at the investment bank Merrill Lynch to pursue his artistic career – has put himself at the mercy of the elements to further his painting. In 2008, he hit the headlines when he took a flight on a zero gravity plane for the Life In Space project, creating two new works while experiencing complete weightlessness. So far, he’s come out of both experiments unscathed, except for the sore throat he’s currently nursing. But why would he want to put himself in harm’s way in the first place?

“To go somewhere with different shades of white for a prolonged period of time gives you a very different perspective,” says Nasser Azam of Antarctica. Nejc Trost

“The Antarctica trip was really the continuation of my fascination with what I call performance painting,” he says in his huskily broken voice. “The idea is that these extreme environments dictate the content, as opposed to the preconceived ideas that the artist usually has about what he wants to work on. So I honestly had no idea what I was going to paint until I got there. But I also wanted to explore creativity in an unfamiliar situation, that idea of seeing what happens when you get outside your comfort zone. And, you know, Antarctica was pretty much the furthest point away from my comfort zone.

“It was a very different experience, to, say, painting in here,” he says. “Here, if I don’t like the direction something is going in, I can stop or start again. There, I had time and environmental constraints. That’s why I think this performance painting concept is so interesting.”

The results are fascinating. Azam is a figurative painter, so these are not pretty landscapes. Instead, they genuinely feel like off-the-cuff responses to the extreme environment he found himself in. The use of colour is crucial; as Azam says: “To go somewhere with different shades of white for a prolonged period of time gives you a very different perspective.”

That’s most evident in the Ice Desert paintings – the nine brightly coloured canvases are almost Mondrian-eqsue in their blocky feel. In the photographs of Azam working, the stark white of the surroundings becomes part of the work, too.

Azam also set up his makeshift studio on a glacier, in an ice cave and on an ice lake. The crucial final touches of the work weren’t from him at all. Like an artist leaving his signature, Azam left the pieces overnight so the elements could have the last word. It didn’t end up being the best idea Azam had on the trip.

“Conditions deteriorated so much that we actually lost four of the nine canvases in blizzards,” he laughs. “They’d blown away. We went on a search mission two days later and actually found one. And it’s fascinating to look at: the primer is rugged, raw and cracked.”

Of course, painting at all in such conditions is a real challenge. Azam practised at -30° at London’s Billingsgate Fish Market, testing antifreeze paints and custom-made brushes. But the major obstacle was all the survival gear. Naturally, a painter needs his hands to handle his brushes. But Azam’s gloves were so thick that it made painting almost impossible, and he risked frostbite by taking them off. He applied hot pads to his hands so he could continue working.

“It’s turned out to be a very successful trip, and not just in terms of coming back in one piece,” he smiles. “Normally, when humans are placed in these conditions, you think about survival and nothing else. And I was going one step beyond that and thinking about creativity, so that was very interesting to me. Just having the chance to go there and carry out the creative process was so satisfying. In terms of the results, well, that’s not for me to judge. I can’t worry about that.”

Azam has a laid-back confidence that suggests he knows it will all turn out all right. The zero gravity project resulted in his Homage To Francis Bacon Triptych 1, which sold for $332,000 (Dh1.2 million). He’s been artist in residence at London’s County Hall, presenting five well-regarded exhibitions. Not bad for someone who gave up banking just two years ago.

“Actually, to me it feels like I gave up painting for 23 years,” he says. “I didn’t stop being an artist and I always knew I’d return to it one day. What the experience of Merrill Lynch gave me was a global perspective of art and culture. It opened up my vision. So spending 11 years in Japan and the Pacific Rim, travelling extensively in Europe and the US, has all fed into my art.”

And certainly, Azam knows his art. He admits that Homage To Francis Bacon was a “fan letter” to the artist famous for his graphic, tortured work. But rather than just copy his style, Azam took his ideas a step further.

“His triptychs had connotations with religion, even though he wasn’t a religious person per se. So it was interesting to try and take that idea into space, where there are of course all these ideas of the heavenly and celestial. But Bacon’s vision of human existence is so interesting because he laid bare all his emotions. That’s why he’s still so relevant today, 50 years on, because he created art that people can relate to. He understood how trauma is an important aspect of everyday life.”

Interestingly, Azam isn’t sure whether, on the whole, his work has such a specific message. He deals more in allegory, in personal experiences and emotions. Still, this week Ian McEwan’s new book, Solar – inspired by a trip the author took to the Arctic and with scenes set there – is published. It’s very much a novel with an environmental subtext, so I wonder if any of the work Azam completed in Antarctica did, in the end, reflect his feelings about the awe-inspiring place.

“It definitely does capture my impulses at that particular time, in that ice cave,” he says. “These places are completely uninhabited by humans. It was just me, the extreme environment and the work. And we’re talking extreme physically, mentally, visually. The best way of summing it all up is that it felt like it looks.”

Despite the notoriety Azam is enjoying for such endeavours, there is a sense that he’s done with painting in such extreme conditions for now. He talks excitedly of a project in which he will try to represent the brain of an Alzheimer’s patient, and of future collaborative work. Is there nothing that would perhaps tempt him back into the world of performance painting?

“Well, maybe if there’s an expedition to the moon in the next 20 years...” he laughs.

That might be a giant leap for mankind, but it would be just another small step in Nasser Azam’s career.

Evolution’s New Foe: Timid School Administrators

Brandon Keim shared this on WIRED.com
Evolution education is under attack in Weston, Connecticut, but not from the usual direction.
Nobody is promoting intelligent design in the curriculum, or asking schools to teach evolution’s “strengths and weaknesses.” There’s just an administration afraid that teaching third graders too much about Charles Darwin will cause trouble.
“They might have just been looking to avoid controversy, but that has the same effect,” said Steve Newton, programs and policy director at the National Center for Science Education. ” If you’re not looking to teach children the best science, that harms their education.”
At issue is a class section proposed in 2008 by Mark Tangarone, teacher of the third, fourth and fifth grade Talented and Gifted program at the Weston Intermediate School. Tangarone wanted his third graders to study and compare the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin.
To learn about Darwin, students would have retraced the path of the HMS Beagle, the expedition that inspired a young Darwin’s theory of evolution. Each student would study a stop in the voyage, reporting on the animals and adaptations that Darwin observed.
When Tangarone ran his class plan by then-principal Mark Ribbens, he was denied.

In an email obtained by the Weston Forum, Ribbens explained that his objections had nothing to do with the soundness of the theory of evolution. Instead, he was worried about parent reaction.
“While evolution is a robust scientific theory, it is a philosophically unsatisfactory explanation for the diversity of life. I could anticipate that a number of our parents might object to this topic,” wrote Ribbens. “It is not appropriate to have [Darwin's] work or the theory part of the TAG program since the topic is not age appropriate.”
Ribbens explained further, “Evolution touches on a core belief — Do we share common ancestry with other living organisms? What does it mean to be a human being? I don’t believe that this core belief is one in which you want to debate with children or their parents, and I know personally that I would be challenged in leading a 10-year-old through this sort of discussion while maintaining the appropriate sensitivity to a family’s religious beliefs or traditions.”
However, the class wasn’t out of step with official state science standards [.doc]. At the time, these instructed teachers to impart to third graders the ability to “describe how different plants and animals are adapted to obtain air, water, food and protection in specific land habitats.” That section of the standards was subtitled, “Heredity and Evolution — What processes are responsible for life’s unity and diversity?”
Ribbens left the school this year, and Tangarone asked to teach his Darwin program again. The request was rejected, and Tangarone submitted a letter of resignation on February 12, the date of Darwin’s birthday. “I feel that Weston has become anti-science and no longer a place I feel comfortable teaching in,” said Tangarone, who will retire two years early.
“I never dreamed this would be an issue in Weston,” he said. It’s a highly educated community. Many parents work in New York. There are authors, artists and scientists. They’re committed to education for their children.”
Weston Public Schools superintendent Jerry Belair did not respond to requests for an interview.
According to Newton, the motives of school administrators are not in doubt. “They just wanted to avoid controversy,” he said.
Image: Jon Tandy/Flickr.

Fleeing The Scene.

Yes... It is true. In this particular case, seeing this ALDI patron trying to avoid the paparazzi as he skips down the street in his Converse high tops does tell a rather revealing story. Do you think the Chiquita inventory was overstocked that day? Better yet, after the successful shop, did he meet anyone in the parking lot that may have wanted to take his quarter in lieu of grabbing a cart?

The Coffee Shop That Will Live On........

At some point, we all have had a ghost like experience. For a number of years, the "Mildred's Coffee House" http://www.mildredscoffeehouse.com/was a landing area for many people from a variety walks of life, in downtown Overland Park, KS. Sadly, it did officially close its doors a few years back and since that time has attracted a few visionary coffee/restaurant entrepreneurs that wanted to make it a different venue with a unique ambiance. Today, this same location is now "The Red Bench Cafe", http://www.redbenchcafe.com/ but the spirit and voices of the Mildred's clientele lives on. This was the original door to the coffee house that left a very special piece of history in a very close community.

Nautical and Water Scenes In Rowayton, CT

A stroll one early morning presented these fine moments....

For more of my work go to: 

http://www.dmccormackphotography.photoreflect.com

A New England Cottage Swept

From my Black and White New England collection.....

You can view more images at: 

http://dmccormackphotography.com/

The Kansas City Public Library Parking Garage

This photograph has generated a great deal of interest in KC. A patron of the library commented on this as being a true intellectual image of the unique construction that has transformed within the library property. The possibility exists that this piece may be considered for a marketing piece for the library. A bookmark is the idea and boy would I be thrilled to see that happen. Keep your fingers crossed.

Colors in Symmetry- A Total Discovery In The Desert

A few months ago in Tucson Arizona I discovered some interesting wall tile on a road side. It was starting to deteriorate and I wanted to capture the beauty of the color and the design. You can also view an expanded version of this collection on my portfolio site.

http://www.dmccormackphotography.photoreflect.com

REO Speedwagon is named after a flatbed truck

Ransom Eli Olds built a three-wheeled carriage in 1887 and a petrol (gasoline) car in 1896. In 1899, he founded the Olds Motor Works, producing the first Oldsmobile in 1901. Although he didn’t invent the motorcar, he still is known as the “Father of the Automobile.” His heavy-duty flatbed truck was considered a milestone in transportation history. It was from this truck that the American rock band REO Speedwagon chose their name. REO is for the name of Ransom Eli Olds.



REO Speedwagon formed in 1967, debuted their self-titled album in 1971. They reached the charts in 1971 with Ridin’ the Storm Out. Their 1977 live album You Get What You Play For went platinum. Hi-Infidelity, released 1980, sold 7 million copies, reaching No 1 on the Billboard charts. Keep the Fire Burning, the single off their 1982 album Good Trouble, reached the Top 10. Their 2007 album release is also the title for their online video game Find Your Own Way Home, released in 2009. Their latest CD is called Not So Silent Night. And they are still touring.

Some thoughts I have

The journey of life is amazing. One would begin to wonder if all the curves in the road have a purpose. And if so, one would hope that the final destination is just what it was supposed to be all that time you were waiting. We shall see....

By: Dennis. W. McCormack

The preservation of deteriorated wall murals

The fine moments of tranquility

To My Beautiful & Talented Mel Rose

The European in African Art

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/arts/design/16african.html

A Fantastic Art Gallery in Downtown Overland Park, KS

This fine gallery has great selection of artists throughout the U.S. It is located in historic downtown Overland Park, Kansas City. When you have time take a virtual or "live" tour and see all that is on display.

http://www.olivebranchartgallery.com/

Iceland Volcano Photographs

Experiencing The Ride

Just trying to figure out if the gravity that wisdom brings to the soul, truly leverages the circuitry of passion in the final outcome.
Composed By: Dennis W. McCormack