February 10, 2011
A research article published in November shows that people who have the 'GT' genotype for the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the mitochondrial polymerase gamma (POLG) gene have a 23-fold increase in liver toxicity. For those who have two copies 'TT', the risk is even higher. As such, these genotypes confer tremendous risk on about 12 percent of people of European/Caucasian descent, and somewhat smaller percentages of people of Asian or African descent.
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January 28, 2011
A reader emailed me to ask: In follow-up to your previous blog post, is there a comparable example for women's health?To be exactly comparable, we'd be talking about genomics-based personalized tailoring of cancer screening-related diagnostic testing normal-ranges or decision-levels, where the diagnostic involves a customary biomarker molecule that is used to assess risk of cancer and guide further evaluation or intervention.
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January 12, 2011
Nobody. Well, almost nobody. The real answer is that the gene (ATP-binding cassette protein, sub-family 'C' member '11'; ABCC11) that controls earwax phenotype also controls other attributes of glands in the body, and there are genetic variations in this ABCC11 gene that affect the risk of conditions and the effectiveness of treatments in those other glandular tissues.
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