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Posts from the ‘BlogMix’ Category

Genetic Testing: BlogMix and a funny video

I’ve been totally busy because of my summer practice at the department of pediatrics. I’ve seen many cases when genetic tests are needed (a strange haemophilia-related case, hereditary spherocytosis, etc.). I thought I should be your aggregator for today, so I tried to collect the most interesting posts on genetic testing, and I also present a new genetic blog. Then after reading all of these, don’t miss the funny video about a parody of a public service announcement on genetic testing.

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Medicine 2.0 means that you can read valuable comments and opinions which are unlikely to be published in a scientific paper. Hsien-Hsien Lei greatly answers common questions about genetic testing.

Steven Murphy, the Gene Sherpa always informs us about new techniques and procedures that make it easier to diagnose (genetic) conditions and to predict risks for diseases. This time, in his article No More Skin Biopsies?, he says, it does demonstrate how ubiquitous genetic soon will be in the office.

Blaine Bettinger, our favourite genetic genealogist, describes the pros and cons of autosomal genetic testing. He says, no autosomal test, now or in the future, will ever be able to completely define a person or a person’s heritage. The solution could be the easy and fast whole genome sequencing. We hope it’s going to be reality soon.

After writing my Awesome Genetic Announcements post, Cicada from bioephemera.com asked me to express my opinion about how we can handle untreatable disorders (such as early-onset Alzheimers, or bipolar disorder) and whether one’s genetic risks could lead to being uninsured and unemployed.

  1. We don’t have to handle those. In a personalized genetic practice, an easy solution could be that the patient chooses from a list that what kind of diseases, conditions, genes they want to know about.
  2. For answering the second question, I just have to show you the winner of the post of the week award: Medical Ethics 2.0 from The Personal Genome. This post will really answer everything regarding medical ethics and insurance problems.

As I’ve promised, here is a new blog on the sky of the genetic blogosphere, Cancer Genetics. Ramūnas Janavičius, a clinical genetics resident doctor from Vilnius University, Lithuania, who is interested in human cancer genetics. He thinks that we help his work, but the truth is that he does a great service for us and the readers for writing about cancer genetics (an awesome topic!). Follow his blog in the future!

At last, let’s have some fun (actually it’s not as funny as you think):

Next time, I’m going to write about my conception on what a personalized genetic practice is like.

Related links:

BlogMix: useful lists for scientists and a set of new blogs

Due to the bloody exam period, I forgot to share some interesting posts and blogs with you. This is the sixth edition of BlogMix where I try to show you the best of the medical-scientific blogosphere of the week.

Bora Zivkovik recently sent out this request after starting his position as Online Community Coordinator at PLoS ONE. The fact that he actually got this job from recommendations on comments in his blog should be a wake-up call to people who still think social software is about teenage diaries.

Readers of this blog will be aware that I am experimenting with blogging as a mechanism of public outreach in science. This time, I want to try a different experiment. Specifically, I want to see how much good can come from a single blog post.

Today I presented my Web 2.0 talk to the Clinical IT group at work. As a handout, I created a page of all links to sites mentioned in the talk. Here they are for a more general audience. These a just examples of web 2.0 websites, not intended to be a comprehensive list.

Here’s an exclusive look at the first, and only, electronic medical record (EMR) compatible with the infamous iPhone.

PLoS Computational Biology have a great ten simple rule series covering everything from how to make a good oral presentation, to how to select a postdoctoral position. These lists is a must for every scientist.

At last, here are some interesting and valuable blogs that I’ve recently discovered:

Related posts:

Update: don’t miss this weekend the new Medicine 2.0 edition at Medical 2.0; and the Gene Genie edition at Med Journal Watch!

BlogMix: from Fragile X to PubMed

After a successful gynecology exam (the next one is radiology), here are the best blogposts I’ve read this week. This is the fifth edition of BlogMix where I try to show you the best of the medical-scientific blogosphere of the week. This time, I share some new blogs and sites with you as well.

A way to “reverse symptoms of mental retardation and autism in mice” has been discovered by scientists… But is “autism” in mice the same as it is in humans? What is “purposelessness” or an “attention deficit” in mice?

A few days ago, Nature launched its newest Web 2.0 baby, the Nature Precedings.

However the are other options besides PubMed, here are six other options you might not have heard of, worth a look perhaps?

So having got that out of the way, I’d like to tell you about Bioscreencast.com, a website that has its roots in Jon Udell and in the curious minds of a few geeks.

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Youtube, JoVe, DNAtube, Bioscreencast…

… one of the key ways to avoid some of the dangers of cyberspace is to create and participate in online communities that are focused on the real world.

Here are some valuable blogs I’ve recently found:

Further reading:

See you next Friday!

BlogMix: Cyborgs and Hardcore Genetics

After a successful endocrinology/nephrology exam (the next one is gynecology), I have to share the best blogposts I’ve read recently with you. This is the fourth edition of BlogMix where I try to show you the best of the medical-scientific blogosphere of the week.

10 ideas how to become a cyborg. I loved the 9th one: Refuse to Live with Your Genes… Should I really? I just love all of them!

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Steven Murphy tells us why Forbes was wrong. An interesting and useful series of posts on the subject: part one, two, three, four

In yesterday’s speculation about chasing rare diseases with full human genome sequences, I completely ignored one major challenge: haplotyping.

Often, at least at the current stage of genetic genealogy, DNA sequencing does not reveal enough information to identify a person’s particular Y chromosome or mtDNA haplogroup. The example I will be using in this post is Haplogroup E.

DNA testing is a growing business in the Czech Republic. Genomac and Forensic DNA Service lead the pack and it hasn’t been a friendly competition.

I should write a post about DNA testing in Hungary.

Further reading:

BlogMix: full of genetics

This is the third edition of BlogMix where I try to show you the best of the medical-scientific blogosphere of the week. This week is devoted to genetics:

The annual Institute of Medical Illustrators (IMI) Awards showcase the best in clinical photography, graphics, illustration, animation, web-design, and much much more. (Congenital iris abnormality below)

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Just as fixing a lightbulb can cure a room of darkness, fixing a gene is thought to cure cells of disease.

“Cancer is one of the most popular illnesses at present, why be left out? Why be one of the few that does not develop cancer? Here are a few tips and ideas to ensure that you are also included in the great cancer lottery!

That’s why we need expert-bloggers who can tell us how to think properly regarding a scientific article. Steven tells the truth about that 12 Gene Tests That Could Change Your Life article.

Johns Hopkins investigators are reporting in the latest issue Developmental Cell an ability to observe epithelial cells transfer across living tissues in vitro.

Kevin also has a Blogmix.

Hsien is giving Derek W. Hornby, Chief Information Officer of Suracell Personal Genetic Health, a chance to defend his company and nutrigenomics in general in the interview.

Further reading:

BlogMix: the weekly best of the blogosphere

This is the second edition of BlogMix (don’t forget about the 8th and upcoming edition of Gene Genie at Eye on DNA this weekend) where I try to show you the best of the medical-scientific blogosphere:

There is no anonymity on the web. If you blog under a pseudonym, people will find out who you are if they really wanted to. So with that in mind, blog as if the whole world is reading and knowing who you are.

Admit it, you’re dying to get your hands on Watson’s genome, aren’t you? Who isn’t?! Yesterday James Watson was handed his sequenced genome on DVD from 454 Life Sciences.

Amazingly, according to the press release, the genome was sequenced over two months for $1 million. Incredible, considering the Human Genome Project took years and billions of dollars, and even Venter’s project took $300 million.

The annual RX Club Awards is considered to be the Oscars of pharmaceutical product advertising and promotion. It honors work in print, electronic media, and video in the service of healthcare.

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Slides from a presentation by Patricia Anderson that help illustrate the usefulness of searching with MeSH.

Google Photos (currently named Picasa Web Albums) added Flash slideshows which can be embedded in web sites. This new feature is demonstrated with some of our procedure guides below.

And Communicating Science to the Public from Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog:

See you next Friday!

BlogMix: the best posts of the week

Every Saturday from now, I’m going to collect all the best posts of the medical and genetic blogosphere. In this first issue, I focus on personalized genetics and web 2.0 (it’s a surprise, isn’t it?).

The Genetic Genealogist produced a fantastic series of posts about the $1000 genome:

Kudos to Blaine Bettinger!

Then don’t miss A thesaurus, wikis and text mining post at business|bytes|genes|molecules.

The goal of the project is to discover relationships and associations and eventually therapeutic mechanisms. The hope is to bring as many as 20,000 bioinformaticians and researchers into the project. From where I stand, just limiting the proposal to a relationship-oriented wiki might be too narrow.

LifeHack provides a list of the features of del.icio.us.

The community of del.icio.us allows you to find some of the best resources on the Internet without having to trudge through all of the junk.

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And two writings of Walter at HighlightHealth.com:

At last, my interview with Steven Murphy has been published at Reuters! :)

That’s why I’m proud to be a member at ScientificBlogging.com!

See you next Saturday with BlogMix…

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