Let’s start with the disclaimers. Most importantly, “excess” deaths, meaning a higher number than might be anticipated, are based on the assumption that the baseline death used to determine excess was…
Category: Genetics
AI Pinpoints Parkinson’s Subtypes Using Stem Cell Images
Summary: Researchers enabled machine learning to accurately predict Parkinson’s disease subtypes using stem cell images. This breakthrough showcases computer models classifying four Parkinson’s subtypes, with top accuracies reaching 95%. This…
Should University Agricultural Research Scientists Partner With Industry?
Paul Vincelli, extension professor and Provost’s Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Kentucky | March 7, 2017 HIGHLIGHTS: • Biases, conflicts of interest come from many sources, including associations with…
Viewpoint: GOP Congressmen continue to question safety of the COVID vaccine, raising concerns of feeding vaccine hesitancy
It was a late-spring House of Representatives hearing, where members of Congress and attendees hoped to learn lessons from the pandemic. Witness Marty Makary made a plea. “I want to…
Meet the beetles: Mealworms could be a food of the future
I have a special fondness for the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio molitor. As a child, I fed the mealworm stage of this beetle to my pet chameleon. As a teen, I…
GLP podcast and video: Dunning-Kruger debunked? The evil industry, noble activist myth; The real Vandana Shiva
The less informed someone is about a topic, the more likely they are to overestimate their knowledge of it. This is a cognitive bias known as the Dunning-Kruger effect; it’s…
7,000+ rare diseases remain untreatable. The genetic revolution and federal research funding offers hope for cures, but vaccine hesitancy and a lack of newborn screening pose hurdles
There are an estimated 7,000 known rare diseases affecting 30 million people; for 95% of them, there are no treatment options. That dire situation is expected to gradually improve as…
Mushroom hallucinogen sales booming despite reports of serious side effects
When a hemp dispensary in this Florida city started to stock edibles with certain mushroom extracts last year, state regulators quickly ordered it to stop selling the items. The shop…
Investigating Stress Response in PTSD and Depression Through Gene Analysis
Summary: Researchers conducted an analysis of genes in nearly 575,000 brain cells from individuals with and without post-traumatic stress and major depressive disorders (PTSD and MDD), yielding new insights into…
90% adults fall short of eating their daily recommended vegetables. Could gene-edited salad greens make a difference?
A food and agriculture startup called Pairwise developed CRISPR-edited vegetables to make them more palatable. They created a breed of mustard greens (Brassica juncea) that had reduced pungency compared to…
