Genetic Literacy Project

Dr. Oz claims herbicides linked to GMOs cause hormonal problems - The wizard is a fraud. That’s what Dorothy and her friends discover in “The Wizard of Oz.” Many viewers of The Dr. Oz Show will have reached a similar conclusion last week, following another one of the host’s attacks on GMOs as well as his ongoing support for pointless warning labels on food.  For years, Mehmet Oz has waged a propaganda campaign against GMOs, suggesting that eating these foods poses health risks. The good news is that Oz appears to have modified his message, a little bit. Last week, he retreated from earlier claims that GMOs pose direct threats to health: “This debate is not about the safety of GMOs,” he said. Oz knows that his critics have proven him wrong on the science.

Regulatory creep creating ‘anti-competitive obstacles’ for US biotech - The advent of molecular genetic engineering techniques promised breakthroughs in a wide range of consumer products. The research and business sectors have failed to deliver on many of these promises, however, in large part because of creeping government regulation, which Congress is poised to make worse. First, the FDA chose to subject genetically engineered animals to the same burdensome pre-market research and approval procedures as new veterinary drugs such as antibiotics and anti-flea medicines.

Anti-E.coli proteins from GMO plants could make meat safer - Anti-E.coli proteins from GMO plants could make meat safer. Scientists have discovered a way to grow crops with an antimicrobial protein that can be extracted to fight E. coli outbreaks, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The technology relies on colicins, a type of protein produced by E. coli to attack other E. coli strains. The study’s authors say that producing anti-E.coli proteins in edible plants offers a safe, scalable, and affordable way to treat contaminated products before they reach consumers. Significant hurdles, however, remain before this technology becomes mainstream.

Should there be limits on FOIA requests used to harass scientists? - Both the GMO and climate change debates involve the interests of corporations and have attracted political meddling. In both, scientists doing important work have had their personal correspondence exposed to public view and sometimes misrepresented. Kevin Folta, a target of a recent FOIA request, doesn’t think FOI laws should be limited. “Transparency … helps to build trust,” he told me. The danger, he says, lies in how records are used. “When you give someone who wants to destroy your career 4,600 pages of emails, they’ll pick and choose to construct a false narrative.”

My Take – These FOIA requests are much like SLAPP  lawsuits (strategic lawsuit against public participation) which is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition..  Both are a part of an organized effort to abuse the system to silence prominent people who are recognized experts and can arguably disagree with them. 

How supercomputers and plant genetics provide farmers better seeds - Without advanced computing, the secrets of plant genetics would go largely untapped.

Gene therapy offers hope for spinal muscular atrophy cure - I began writing about genetics decades ago, and the best thing about getting older is witnessing the development of targeted treatments for single-gene diseases that I never thought would happen. But it is happening, for cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, and many other conditions. The steps may be incremental for some conditions, but researchers are deploying a staggeringly diverse armamentarium of techniques and technologies to fight genetic disease.  Now spinal muscular atrophy enters the arena of the possible. In SMA, motor neurons in the spinal cord degenerate. Skeletal (voluntary) muscle loses function, producing weakness and impairing mobility. Also called “floppy baby syndrome,” SMA results from mutation in the “survival motor neuron” gene (SMN1). Incidence of SMA is one in 10,000 in the U.S., and one in 50 people are carriers – that’s 6 million people who have one copy of the mutation.

Each one of our brain neurons has unique genetic lineage - People talk about an individual’s genome as if it was a single consistent entity — but it isn’t. Every one of us actually contains a cosmopolitan melting pot of different genomes. Our 37 trillion or so cells all arose from a single fertilized egg, and as this progenitor divided again and again, its daughters picked up mutations in their DNA that distinguished them, and their descendants, from their neighbors.