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Posts Tagged ‘23andMe’

My Promethease Unbound

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on November 7, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Image via Wikipedia Thanks so very much to the folks at SNPedia for developing and sharing the Promethease analysis tool. What a delight to delve into my 23andMe profile ! I stumbled onto the usual dreary risks for this and that, and yes, I know I’m at risk for baldness, but did come up with [...]

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“sintinaptoo” is a nonword that makes it hard to read nonwords

Posted in CNTNAP2, FOXP2, Myelin, Superior temporal cortex, tagged , , , , on November 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image by lintmachine via Flickr Like “Joe the Plumber” (whose real name is Samuel), CNTNAP2 (whose real name is CASPR2) has achieved a bit of fame lately.  While recently appearing almost everywhere (here, here, here) except FOX News, CNTNAP2 (not Joe the Plumber) is apparently a transcriptional target of the infamous FOXP2 “language gene” – [...]

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Dodged this baldness snp

Posted in EDA2R, tagged on October 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image by meantux via Flickr Just was skimming an article (Prodi et al., doi: 10.1038/jid.2008.60) on genetics of baldness and happened to notice that one snp mentioned is covered by 23andMe and so I, while unfortunately mostly (are there levels?) bald, felt my last few follicles stand up and cheer for my C-allele at rs1385699 [...]

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Michael Frank probes neurogenetic basis of “oops!”

Posted in Cingulate cortex, COMT, Dopamine, tagged , , , on September 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image by Getty Images via Daylife Amidst the current economic panic, I’m feeling more shocked than usual when listening to the flip-flopping, falsehoods, fabrications, backstepping, about-facing and unabashed spin-doctoring spewing forth from the news media. If watched long enough, one may even develop empathy for Henry Paulson who carries the weight of the global economy [...]

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My ‘HUMAN’ brain

Posted in ASPM, tagged , , on September 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Having a great time reading Michael Gazzaniga‘s new book, “Human – the science behind what makes us unique” and thought I’d see to what extent his conclusions might square with genetic data on population history and natural selection etc. and also evaluate my 23andMe profile to see to what extent I’m carrying [...]

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Hoy-ploy wear drool as the new black

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on September 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Just thought it was strange to see the beautiful people drooling into 23andMe spit cups in today’s “Style” section of the NY Times. Strange in a good way.

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Intronic rs833070 / rs2146323 variants in VEGF demonstrate link to hippocampal size to reinforce role in rehabilitation, resilience and medication response

Posted in Hippocampus, VEGF, tagged , , on July 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia The mitogenic activities of the vascular endothelial growth factor protein family are well researched. A number of findings have linked this gene to learning and memory and hippocampal-dependent response to antidepressant medication. Indeed, its reasonable to expect that a mitogen such as VEGF would regulate hippocampal cell division and the accompanying benefits [...]

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rs1044396 mediates effects of nicotine self-medication

Posted in acetylcholine, CHRNA4, tagged , , , on June 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

It has been reported that cigarettes can impart some calm and clarity from racing thoughts and mental fog. Patients with schizophrenia, who often experience cognitive disorganization, are 2-4 times more likely than the general population to smoke, and also seem to prefer stronger brands of cigarettes. This is not surprising since nicotine can raise levels [...]

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Genetic risk factor for schizophrenia regulates brain function in healthy people

Posted in Frontal cortex, NRG1, tagged , , on June 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Nowadays, as many folks peer into the vast tangled thicket of their own genetic code, they, as I, assuredly wonder what it all means and how best to ascertain their health risks. One core theme that emerges from repeated forays into one’s own data is that many of us carry a scads [...]

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rs4675690 C-allele steers my left insula away from angry old farts

Posted in CREB, Insula, tagged , , , on May 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Indeed, learning how to manage one’s response to the negative emotions of others and stay out of trouble is an important life skill. At some point, most of us learn to just avoid angry, mean or melodramatically negative people and save ourselves the strife. Roy Perlis and colleagues, in their recent paper, [...]

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Copy number variation carries the day – and the risk of mental illness

Posted in Chromosome structural variants, tagged , , on May 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image by Colin Purrington via Flickr A pair of Nature papers (PubMedIDs: 18668039, 18668038) find that mapping the risk of schizophrenia to the genome is more readily achieved when examining structural variation (insertions, deletions, duplications etc.). This is welcome news given the sparse success of SNP screening, although it would be reasonable to assume that [...]

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My 23andMe profile: no genomic guide to sports cheating

Posted in UGT2B17, tagged on April 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image by Getty Images via Daylife Just checked for my status at UGT2B17 – locus of a 150kb deletion variant covered here in the Economist – to see whether I might have missed my chance to inject ‘roids and claim international sports glory without getting busted by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Unfortunately, the 23andMe profile [...]

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rs4570625 – this is a really cool snp – if you’re a nerd

Posted in DLPFC, Frontal cortex, TPH2, tagged , , , on March 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image by TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³ via Flickr Every student can recall at least one stereotypical professor who – while brilliant – kept the students amused with nervous and socially inept behavior. Let’s face it, if you’re in academia, you’re surrounded by these – uh, nerds – and, judging by the fact that you are reading (not [...]

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rs1800955 survives meta-analytical scrutiny of links between DRD4 and personality

Posted in DRD4, tagged , , on February 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The publication of positive genetic association results is always something to cheer about although most of us know that on a different day, with a different sample, the results could just as easily been flat. So when a meta-analytical paper appears that actually supports a previous finding, you have to savor the sweet joy of [...]

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Sweets now, sweets later: rs165688 makes my holidays hell

Posted in COMT, DLPFC, Dopamine, Frontal cortex, Orbitofrontal cortex, Parahippocampal gyrus, Posterior parietal cortex, tagged , , , on January 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Holiday time is full of all things delicious and fattening. Should I have a little chocolate now, or wait till later and have a bigger dessert ? Of course, this is not a real forced choice (in my case, the answer too often seems – alas – “I’ll have both!”), but there are many times [...]

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I carry genetic risk for mental illness

Posted in DTNBP1, tagged , , , , on December 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

Image by dbking via Flickr Amidst the excitement of new personalized genome services, the Economist reports on fraudsters found peddling ‘personalized supplements’ based on bogus genetic testing results. This is an extreme, tragicomic example to be sure, but highlights some of the issues that can arise when confronting one’s genetic blueprint. A recent paper by [...]

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rs6265 (A) is my bodyguard

Posted in BDNF, Nucleus accumbens, Striatum, Ventral tegmental area, tagged , , on November 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

It’s generally not fun to be browbeaten, bullied, bulldozed or downright oppressed – by the schoolyard bully or perhaps the micromanaging boss – in any form. While we’ve all been there – sometimes with initial feelings of sorrow, mopiness, lethargy, etc. – all part of the normal adaptive response to just pack-it-in and withdraw, the [...]

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