Couples’ Connection

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We like to believe that we were born with a choice. That all men are created equal and that we have the power to shape our destiny. However, the truth is, much of who we are was predetermined while we were still in the womb. From your study habits, to your athleticism, to your attention to detail, or lack thereof, all of these traits have some genetic basis. And now, it seems we must add one more predisposition to the list:

Your significant other.

Yes, new scientific research has shown that you may have been predisposed towards your loved one since birth, as couples tend to have far more DNA in common than strangers. Even when racial variability was taken out of the equation, humans still gravitated towards people with similar genomes. To come to this conclusion, researchers genetically tested 825 U.S. married couples born between the 1930’s and 1950’s. By analyzing 1.7 million single nucleotide polymorphisms…sorry, let me back up. Whenever I get excited I start spitting out scientific jargon, so please bear with me. Single nucleotide polymorphisms are sections of the genome that display nucleotide variability (changes in the genetic alphabet: A, T, G, and C) between same species members. This way they aren’t comparing sections of your DNA that would be identical whether you were a human or a cow.

Anyway, by comparing these nucleotide polymorphisms to other individuals in the same race but opposite sex, the study found that similar genetic codes are central to unlocking your heart. To help you appreciate just how powerful this connection is, genetic similarity was shown to have about a third of the influence as having a similar educational background does on spouse selection.

So what is it that people look for in a genome? Dr. Benjamin Dominique, a researcher at the University of Colorado Behavior Science department, said there was no one gene that controlled an individual’s heart strings, but rather love was controlled by a plethora of multifaceted genes that influence such things as height, intellect, and even personality type (Dunham, 2014).

While this may not seem like the hard-hitting news you are used to on The Genetic Link, this has huge applications for all of you who have convinced yourselves that you will never find your other-half. Numerous dating sites are now embracing these new findings and bringing online dating into the 21st century. Sites such as GenePartner.com, ScientificMatch.com, and DatingDNA.com make finding your soul-genotype easy. Now you can simply send off a cheek swab and your perfect match will be hand selected by a team of professional love experts/lonely single geneticists who will evaluate your compatibility on 1.7 million levels.

So what are you waiting for? Your special genome partner is waiting for you.

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Works Cited:

1. Dunham, Will. ‘WATCH: How Your DNA May Have Influenced Your Marriage’. The Huffington Post. 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/21/married-couples-dna-study_n_5353953.html

The Genetic Link Season 3: The Yeast Edition

The Genetic Link Season 3

Welcome to the third installment of The Genetic Link (The Yeast Edition), the only in-depth blog you need for your genetics news. In the past, The Genetic Link has brought you such favorites as Super Bananas, Three-Parent Babies, A Cure for Aging, and Cloning Extinct Animals for Dummies. After celebrating critically acclaimed success in the classroom, the Genetic Link is back for another 10 week series hoping to cover more of the incredible information contained within your DNA.

Over the next few weeks, this site will make genetics relatable and understandable to everyone while delving into biological connections you never knew existed. Having been fascinated by genetics since determining something had to be done (and soon!) about my current gene pool, I have made it my quest to learn everything I can on the topic and hopefully fix the many disorders I am likely to develop later in life.

In this season of the Genetic Link, we will not only explore the amazing bio-news happening every day, but will also feature my very own research being conducted at the Bai Laboratory at Penn State University. As a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major, this is my first laboratory experience at Penn State and I am excited to share with the world weekly updates on my progress as I learn more on DNA damage and aging. Spoiler alert: It involves yeast.

So what are you waiting for? Follow me for weekly posts on topics such as:

DNA Damage and the Yeast Report

Lies in Genetics: Extracting the myths from the reality

Fitting into a size 4 gene

Couples’ Connection

DNA Testing, Why bother?

Are some people hardwired for science?

….and so much more. So sit back, and start sequencing, because you never know where you may find the next genetic breakthrough. Spoiler alert: It’s going to be yeast.

Special Offer: Are you like me and you can’t wait for the next story. Now for a limited time only you can read all the amazing DNA discussions from seasons 1 and 2 free of charge. Simply go to https://sites.psu.edu/geneticlink for your exclusive access to all the chromosome commentaries you can’t live without.

 

Welcome Back

 

 

Top 5 Moments on The Genetic Link

We knew this day was coming. There was nothing we could do to avoid it. Sadly, just as all good things must eventually come to an end, The Genetic Link (Season 2: The Search Continues) is coming to a close. We had an amazing journey and we learned astonishing facts about the human body and the science that makes you you. It has been my privilege being your trusted guide and as a going away treat, I want to share my Top 5 favorite moments on The Genetic Link.

 

#5: Procrastinating? Blame Your Genetics procrastination-hear494

The Genetic Link had lofty goals at the beginning of Season 1. Introducing the topic as not just a field for old wizened scientists in white lab coats, The Genetic Link’s goal was to present this revolutionary frontier in terms anyone could understand.  While it struggled to pique interest in its earliest beginnings, The Genetic Link had its break-out post when it asked the question: Is Procrastination Inherited? This post went into great detail regarding studies done on fraternal and identical twins and determined that procrastination, impulsivity, and the tendency to dawdle over certain tasks have the same genetic foundation. However, what made this post special is that it was the first time The Genetic Link made genetics relatable and was rewarded with your enthusiasm.

 

#4: Super Bananas Banana Heroes

A guilty pleasure of mine, October 17, 2014 marked the day The Genetic Link tackled the issue of genetically modified organisms. Weighing the potential for a banana to be fortified with additional nutrients to help malnourished countries over the potential side effects genetic engineering has on human health, the post attempted to determine whether the modified “super banana” was a hero or a villain. Filled with puns and humor, this post presented a complex problem that required you to peel back more than just the outer layers.

 

#3: A Cure for Agingth

Probably one of my more thought provoking topics, A Cure For Aging explored the potential genetics has to grant humans near immortality. Inspired by research done by the National Institute of Health in which mice were engineered to live 20% longer, this post posed the question, “Do we deserve to live forever?” While on the one hand, living a few extra years might be nice for an individual, if everyone lived longer what would be the toll on our natural resources? Yet, isn’t the goal of medicine to make us live longer lives? These were difficult questions and ones that probably don’t have a right answer. Nevertheless, many of you weighed in with your two cents and I enjoyed seeing the varying opinions on this topic.

 

#2: Three-Parent Babies 3-parent-babies-600x420

Now a couple weeks into season 2, The Genetic Link’s informants (Alright, fine, my Mom) picked up a juicy tidbit of recent news when Great Britain was preparing to legalize three parent babies (Great Britain did, in fact, legalize the procedure after the post was published).  Why three-parent babies? Well, many debilitating mitochondrial defects are often passed from mother to child and by using a healthy embryo from a third parent to encase the genetic information of the main parent, mitochondrial defects can be fixed before birth. What makes this special is that it is the first form of prenatal gene therapy to be legalized. However, it is estimated that until more research is done, the first three parent baby procedure won’t be done until 2016. Nevertheless, in this blog I was able to pose many questions about the ethics of genetic treatments and had some great feedback from all of you.

 

#1: Cloning Extinct Animals for Dummies Cloning Extinct Animals

Hands down, the most humor-packed post of both seasons combined, “Cloning Extinct Animals for Dummies” depicted an excerpt from a fictional book of the same title which was a how-to guide for making a pet mammoth. From fake online elephant shopping at Elephants R Us, to getting down and dirty in elephant insemination and other ridiculous procedures, this blog pulled out all the stops while still giving an informative description of the current scientific status of cloning an extinct animal from scratch. Regrettably,despite my best efforts, pre-order sales for the book never made it past the Ice Age. It’s still available for $39.99 (20% off), just in case you were wondering.

 

Bonus Moment: CRISPR, or The End of Hypotheticals sigmazfn1388385243

Lastly, the blog that tied everything together. CRISPR, or the End of Hypotheticals, was a post on the recent discovery of a machine/procedure that enables scientists to make precise edits to the genome. All of the procedures and techniques that I have been describing all along in my blog, from curing obesity, to halting aging, even to engineering mice to love us (OK, that one was is still a little far-fetched), none of it had been remotely feasible until now. With the underlying message that the future is constantly catching up to you, The End of Hypotheticals shows that germ line engineering and a dystopian future of designer babies may not be as far off as you think. Do we have the right to engineer our next generation? Maybe, maybe not, but sooner rather than later, we are going to have to make a choice.

 * * *

With that, the Genetic Link (Season 2: The Search Continues) comes to a close. It has been an honor writing these posts and receiving feedback from such an amazing group of engineers, scientists, writers, business people, and other aspiring individuals. So I want to thank all of you who faithfully read my posts each week, wrote insightful comments, and made this blog truly special. With that, I say farewell and wish you good luck on your future endeavors.  Ben Paskoff signing off.

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CRISPR, or The End of Hypotheticals

CRISPR-CasheaderLogo-white

If you have been following The Genetic Link, you may have noticed that in addition to the natural charm and wittiness I include in my writing for your personal enjoyment (you’re welcome), I also pose many hypothetical questions. Near FutureFrom cloning mammoths, to curing mouse obesity, to understanding our own intelligence, it has been my goal to make you appreciate not only the benefits of genetics research, but the consequences of it as well. Yet, despite all this, little of what I had described to you was actual science, but instead filed away as “the near future.”

However, with one invention, perhaps the most important invention of our generation, all of that has changed and the near future has suddenly become now.

It is called CRISPR which is short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Its purpose? To make extremely precise edits to DNA. Now, to be honest, we have been able to do this for some time but only with lots of funding and the most highly skilled geneticists. However, using this device, we can now edit the genome easily, quickly, and cost efficiently. In fact, this technique is so effective that it can even perform germline modifications (modifications to the DNA of egg and sperm) which, if you remember from my post on cloning mammoths just a few weeks back (Cloning Extinct Animals for Dummies), I told you such a thing was impossible. Not anymore. Seems like the future has a way of catching up with us, kind of like those finals that seem so far off right now.

evil scientistWhile many geneticists are rejoicing at the prospect of whole new avenues of genome experimentation, many are concerned that we are not ready for the power we now hold.

Because, with this device, genetically engineering human beings is no longer a hypothetical.

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Even before the invention of CRISPR, many scientific nations (not including the U.S.) had already placed a ban on germline engineering claiming that it is a crime against human dignity and human rights (Regalado, 2015). The concern is that “Germline engineering is a path towards a dystopia of superpeople and designep01kbp74r babies for those who can afford it” (Regalado, 2015). Indeed, unlike other genetic techniques I have described in previous weeks, germ line modification is directly passed down from one generation to the next, dooming the offspring of gene surgery recipients to receive the same alteration regardless of potential side effects.

According to Merle Berger, co-founder of Boston IVF and leading expert in reproductive medicine, “All this means that germline engineering is much farther along than anyone imagined. What we are talking about is a major issue for all humanity” (Regalado, 2015).

Yet despite all this controversy, CRISPR has the potential to do enormous good. Things like cystic fibrosis, Alzheimer’s, and other genetic diseases could “hypothetically” be eradicated from the human population entirely through a kind of “gene surgery.” In fact, Dr. Luhan Yang, a Post Doc at Harvard Medical School, is currently trying to propose an experiment in which she would attempt to fix a mutation in a BRCA1 gene in the removed ovaries of a woman undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer. The objective would be to create a viable egg without the genetic error that caused the woman’s cancer. Should this experiment succeed, it would finally prove that it is possible to produce children free of specific genes that result in inherited illness (Regalado, 2015).

While we still don’t have enough information to know if we can actually modify the human embryo to lack key inherited diseases, the science is really possible. Nevertheless, the line between medical research and human cruelty is a slippery slope to climb and there are many who say we should turn back now. Like any branch of science, there is always the chance of something this powerful being abused. However, we are currently faced with an unprecedented opportunity to erase thousands of inherited diseases from the medical dictionary using these tools. The research being done on gene therapy has too much potential to simply be terminated on account of fears of dystopian futures. Cystic fibrosis, Alzheimer’s, and cancer are real conditions and CRISPR has the capacity to do what no other form of medicine can. The time for hypotheticals is over. The science is here.

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Works Cited:
1. Regalado, Antonio. “Engineering the Perfect Baby.” MIT Technology Review. N.p., 5 Mar. 2015. Web. http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/535661/engineering-the-perfect-baby/