Those of us who work on rare diseases at Einstein and Montefiore Medical Center form a kind of family. Our goal is to make a difference in the lives of patients who are affected by the conditions we study. At the heart of our work is a patient, someone who has touched us and made Read more
Genetics
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal describes a couple’s decision to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to see whether the woman’s embryos had the BRCA gene, a mutation linked to breast cancer. PGD enables embryos created by in vitro fertilization (IVF) to be inspected for a variety of genetic conditions, so that only Read more
Many people have heard of the company 23andMe; hundreds of thousands throughout the world have used the company’s Personal Genome Service (PGS), which provides a report that offers detailed information about an individual’s DNA. For $99, a consumer receives a test-tube kit from the company, fills the tube with saliva and sends it back Read more
Editors’ Note: Tomorrow an exciting new era in genomics formally begins in New York City. Einstein joins 11 other preeminent research partners as institutional founding members of the New York Genome Center as it formally begins operations. The facility is a unique collaboration that will create significant potential for sequencing immense amounts of data to Read more
I know, I know. You read the phrase “the ageing epigenome” and, apart from noticing that the spelling is un-American, you find that really only one thing springs to mind: There must be a lot of anagrams I could make from that phrase. My examples appear below, but feel free to play along at home Read more
Editors’ Note: It’s a question that sparks intense interest from scientists and the lay public alike: What causes some people to live long, healthy lives—nearly free of disease—until their deaths in their nineties and beyond? The answers have implications for all of us. If we can identify genes that extend life and stave off disease Read more
