Genomes Unzipped

The ongoing debate about whether, what, when and how to feedback incidental findings (IFs) from whole genome sequencing continues to rage on both sides of the Atlantic following the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics’ controversial recommendations on reporting IFs released last month. In an unexpected twist, the authors of the guidance have now [...]

This is a guest post by Graham Coop and Peter Ralph, cross-posted from the Coop Lab website. We’ve been addressing some of the FAQs on topics arising from our paper on the geography of recent genetic genealogy in Europe (PLOS Biology). We wanted to write one on shared genetic material in personal genomics data but [...]

By now, we’re probably all  familiar with Niels Bohr’s famous quote that “prediction is very difficult, especially about the future”. Although Bohr’s experience was largely in quantum physics, the same problem is true in human genetics. Despite a plethora of genetic variants associated with disease – with frequencies ranging from ultra-rare to commonplace, and effects [...]

Guest Co-Author: Dr Anna Middleton is an Ethics Researcher and Registered Genetic Counsellor, based at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK. The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) has recently published recommendations for reporting incidental findings (IFs) in clinical exome and genome sequencing. These advocate actively searching for a set of specific IFs unrelated to [...]

Last week, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory reported that they had sequenced the genome of the Henrietta Lacks, or “HeLa”, cell line. This report was met with considerable consternation by those who (justifiably, in my opinion) wondered why scientists are still experimenting on a cell line obtained without consent in the 1950s [1]. [...]