Friday’s Elk, November 13, 2015

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings–

On this Friday the 13th, I wish you only good luck and offer you the following diversions…

The DNA of a Million Veterans

–I’ve got a new story at STAT, about the next chapter in the history of genetics. Researchers are launching massive studies of huge numbers of people in order to link genes to diseases. One of the biggest is being run by the U.S. military. The Veterans Administration is gathering the DNA of a million veterans to study everything from diabetes to PTSD. I went inside the Million Veteran Program to get a first-hand look at this new way of exploring our genes. (Be sure to check out the video of the enormous operation!) Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, November 13, 2015” →

After a Mass Extinction, Only the Small Survive

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The New York Times, November 12, 2015

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From sharks to giraffes, many of Earth’s biggest and most magnificent species are threatened with extinction. A new study of the fossil record indicates that once large vertebrates disappear, evolution cannot quickly restore them — for tens of millions of years, most animals remain small.

The study, published Thursday in Science, emerged from research carried out by Lauren Sallan, a paleontologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Studying fish that lived during the Mississippian Period, from 359 million to 323 million years ago, she noticed that they were substantially smaller than their ancestors.

Continue reading “After a Mass Extinction, Only the Small Survive” →

Inside the drive to collect DNA from 1 million veterans and revolutionize medicine

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

STAT, November 11, 2015

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“This is our brand new freezer,” Don Humphries said. “It holds 4 million vials.”

You’d think a freezer big enough to hold 4 million vials of blood would be easy to spot. But to my great embarrassment, I couldn’t see it.

Humphries and I were standing in a lab in the basement of the Veterans Affairs hospital in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. He had led me through a labyrinth of windowless rooms, packed with robots handling tubes of blood donated from veterans, pipes roaring with coolant, and gorilla-sized tanks of liquid nitrogen, until he stopped next to a featureless wall.

Continue reading “Inside the drive to collect DNA from 1 million veterans and revolutionize medicine” →

Geneticist Craig Venter helped sequence the human genome. Now he wants yours

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

STAT, November 5, 2015

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If you enter Health Nucleus, a new facility in San Diego cofounded by J. Craig Venter, one of the world’s best-known living scientists, you will get a telling glimpse into the state of medical science in 2015.

Your entire genome will be sequenced with extraordinary resolution and accuracy. Your body will be scanned in fine, three-dimensional detail. Thousands of compounds in your blood will be measured. Even the microbes that live inside you will be surveyed. You will get a custom-made iPad app to navigate data about yourself. Also, your wallet will be at least $25,000 lighter.

Continue reading “Geneticist Craig Venter helped sequence the human genome. Now he wants yours” →