"Genetics-based products stir concerns; Scientists worry about promises" by Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | May 27, 2009
As genetics spreads beyond the lab....
The disconnect stems partly from ordinary people's expectations of genetics, which have been set by the powerful - but often oversimplified - idea they learned in high school that inherited genes determine traits such as blood type or eye color and that a single errant gene could be the culprit for a disease, such as cystic fibrosis or Huntington's disease.
Yup, your STATE SCHOOLS at WORK!!
Distributing DISINFORMATION and OUTRIGHT LIES as well as PUSHING the AGENDA with their CAPTIVATED AUDIENCE!!!!
Such clear-cut examples of the power of genetics do not exist in most diseases, or complex phenomena like aging, where a confusing stew of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors seems to play a role....
Translation: You were fed BS, folks!
Damn those crime shows that populate television!!
As a sign of genetics' arrival in the marketplace, the first Consumer Genetics Show will land in Boston in June.
Oooooooooh! ONCE AGAIN it is ALL ABOUT the $$$$$$$!!!!
The Globe is a BUSINESS AGENT for FAVORED CORPORATIONS and SPECIAL INTERESTS, nothing more (keep reading).
With panels of doctors and scientists as well as presentations on emerging technologies, it is a forum for establishing and questioning the field's legitimacy.
Yeah, right; it's a PROMO PRODUCTION!!!
Sessions include not only intellectual property and investment in such companies, but also, "Is the science ready yet?" and "Personal Genetics - is it Really Here?"
That time is here for Gayle Averyt, a 75-year-old from South Carolina who got a slate of genetic tests a few years ago during a visit to the upscale Berkshires resort Canyon Ranch. Averyt was determined to peer into his genome, but felt ill-equipped to interpret the results himself, so he was pleased that his longtime doctor at the resort went through the data with him.
I guess there is a sucker born every minute.
I'm sure that "doctor" had no conflict of interest.
One of the companies betting that consumers will pay to figure out genetics themselves is Interleukin Genetics, which plans to next month launch a slate of tests....
Why do I get the feeling this all leads back to biotech?
You can forget about me; I don't have any hang-ups because I've been ugly all my life -- another reason I identify with the gorilla in my profile.
They are moving forward despite a 2006 report from the US Government Accountability Office, which sent patient data to four unnamed websites offering genetic tests with nutrition advice, to see whether the advice given seemed valid.
"The results we received from all the tests we purchased mislead the consumer by making health-related predictions that are medically unproven and so ambiguous that they do not provide meaningful information to consumers," the report stated.
The Food and Drug Administration licenses labs that administer the tests, but the tests are generally not closely regulated. The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning to consumers about genetics tests on its website, urging skepticism.
Government urging skepticism? Maybe these guys deserve a second look.
Interleukin Genetics tests for genes shown to elevate risk for different health conditions. Though he was not familiar with the company's products, Dr. Isaac Kohane, a Harvard Medical School professor, pointed out that finding genes is generally less valuable than talking to your parents.
Oh, so the $$$-making GENETICS (kind of a scary term, if you think about it as EUGENICS, it's fore-runner) IDEAS and HEALTH PROFITS are NOTHING next to TALKING to YOUR PARENTS!!!
And it will GIVE YOU A REASON to TALK with them NO MATTER WHAT YOUR AGE!!! Go PICK up that PHONE, America, and GIVE YOUR MOM and DAD a call, hmmmm?
"Family history is probably the biggest predictor we have right now of your risk," Kohane said. "No single gene or group of gene gets anywhere as close."
Yup, a FRONT-PAGE BUSINESS PROMOTION in the AGENDA-PUSHING BOSTON GLOBE -- and I get tired of typing it!
Procter & Gamble scientists sequenced the genome of the fungus that causes dandruff and compared gene activity in old and young skin, work that helped the development of a skincare product line called Olay Pro-X....
P & G hears the CHA-CHING, 'eh?
And THAT is the SERIOUS PROBLEM?
I can solve that for you: RINSE THOROUGHLY!!!!!!
Dr. Robert Green, a genetics fellow at Harvard Medical School, said the potential is great, but if genetics are used purely as a marketing tool on products that can't live up to their promise, it could be dangerous.
It USED to be called SNAKE OIL!!!!!
"Many of us in genetics think this is one of the greatest dangers to the field - that the legitimate field of genetics will be overwhelmed by a kind of popular pseudoscience that will delegitimize and confuse the actual scientific potential," he said.
Why did 9/11 just pop into my head?
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And if you aren't convinced yet, you will be after this next piece:
WASHINGTON - Scientists have created the first genetically modified monkeys that can pass their new genetic attributes to their offspring, an advance designed to give researchers new tools for studying human disease but one that raises a host of thorny ethical questions.
In this case, the Japanese researchers added genes that caused the animals to glow green under a fluorescent light and beget offspring with the same ability in order to test a technique they hope to use to produce animals with Parkinson's, Huntington's, and other diseases.
What, they don't want to use the night-vision goggles anymore?
The work, described in today's issue of the journal Nature, was hailed by some researchers as a long-sought milestone that could lead to crucial insights into a host of ailments and provide invaluable ways to test new treatments. But the research was condemned by animal rights proponents, who said it paves the way for producing colonies of primates conceived expressly to suffer a plethora of illnesses and undergo potentially painful and dangerous medical experiments.
Yeah, why don't YOU go under the knife instead, mad-hatters!
Yeah, they will infect animals with this s*** but not us, uh-huh!
Because the work marks the first time a species so closely related to humans has been genetically altered in this way, some also worried the same techniques would be used on chimps or other primates even closer to humans or to try to endow people with desirable genetic traits....
Yeah, Hitler, Darwin, and that '20s eugenics crowd thought that way, too!
Scientists have genetically engineered many other species to be research tools. Mice in particular have been created with a wide assortment of characteristics and diseases that mimic human ailments.
See: Animals Advance the Agenda: Vain Experiments
But because mice are so genetically different from humans, scientists have long sought to breed primates to provide better disease "models."
Sick! That's all they are to you: a slab of meat for experiment!
In the new work, Erika Sasakim of the Central Institute for Experimental Animals in Kawasaki, and her colleagues conducted a series of experiments using marmosets, a small monkey common in South America that matures and reproduces quickly. The researchers modified a virus called a lentivirus to carry a jellyfish gene known as GFP (for green fluorescent protein) into the genetic material of the marmosets' cells....
The researchers used the genetically engineered virus to insert the jellyfish gene into 80 marmoset embryos, which they then transferred into the wombs of 50 females.
I'll bet that's also how they created SWINE FLU!
Seven pregnancies resulted in five offspring, four of which showed signs of the jellyfish gene in their hair roots, skin, blood cells, and other tissues. Under fluorescent light, the skin on the soles of their feet glowed....
In a telephone briefing for reporters, the researchers said they had since produced four offspring - two from the male and two from the female - three of which glowed green.
Some other researchers said the work marked a crucial landmark. But others criticized the work.
"These nonhuman primates already suffer in laboratories when we infect them with diseases and when we use them in toxicology tests," said Eric Kleiman of In Defense of Animals.
Yeah, we are such a loving and caring species, aren't we, human?
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