Fecal Transplants Can Be Life-Saving, but How?

Posted on July 15, 2016May 25, 2020 by admin

The New York Times, July 15, 2016

A fecal transplant is exactly what it sounds like: To treat certain gut disorders, doctors transfer stool from a healthy donor to a sick patient.

Just a few years ago, only a few doctors turned to fecal transplants, typically as a last resort. But in randomized trials, the procedure has proved remarkably effective against potentially fatal infections of bacteria known as Clostridium difficile.

The evidence has overwhelmed any squeamishness that physicians might have felt. “We’re doing this treatment almost weekly,” said Dr. Harry Sokol, a gastroenterologist at Saint-Antoine Hospital AP-HP in Paris.

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Game Of Genomes: Season 3

Posted on July 11, 2016May 25, 2020 by Lori Jia

STAT, July 11, 2016

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Episode Nine: Ancient paths of Y and X

Delving into my genome, I learned a lot about how genetic variants influence my health, putting me at risk of some disorders and protecting me from others. But I also wanted to search inside my DNA for my history — my own ancestry, and that of our entire species.

I am hardly alone in my curiosity. Many people are sending their spit to testing companies so that they can learn about their origins.

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Game Of Genomes: Season 2

Posted on July 11, 2016May 25, 2020 by Lori Jia

STAT, July 11, 2016

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Episode Six: A Jedi in the wastelands

On a recent trip to Boston, I had breakfast with a scientist named Manolis Kellis. He met me in the little dining room at my hotel, and we grabbed plates to load with food. Immediately, Kellis was enchanted by the waffle iron. He started pouring a waterfall of batter onto the hot metal and piled up a mound of waffles on his plate.

“You have to help me eat these,” Kellis announced when we sat down. He spoke with a vestige of an accent; he was born in Greece as Manolis Kamvysselis, and came to the United States in 1995 to go to MIT for college. He never left; today he’s a waffle-loving professor of computer science there.

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Game of Genomes: Season 1

Posted on July 11, 2016May 25, 2020 by admin

STAT, July 11, 2016

Link

Episode 1: Man inside the hard drive

A scientist recently pointed me out to his colleagues. “That is not Carl Zimmer,” he declared.

The scientist was Mark Gerstein. He was sitting at a table in his office at Yale University, flanked by two members of his lab. “Really,” Gerstein said, pointing to a slim hard drive on the table, “this is Carl Zimmer.”

By “this,” he meant the sequence of my genome, which was being transferred from the drive onto a MacBook.

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