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Genetic Linkage

Gene Action Tracks an Autoimmune Disease: Systemic Sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (Ssc) is a rare disease in which collagen gloms up internal organs and toughens the skin into an armor of sorts. It's also called scleroderma, from the Greek for “hard” (skleros) and “skin” (derma). Ssc is autoimmune, not inherited, but a recent report in JCI Insight describes how gene expression profiling -- transcriptomics – can add precision to diagnosis, monitor response to treatment, and identify drugs that might be repurposed to target SSc.  Read More 
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Male DNA in Female Brains Revisited

Fetal cells remain in moms -- that isn't news. But the discovery of fetal DNA in women's brains is. (credit: Jay Shendure lab)
“Some women actually have men on the brain” beckoned the headline from the LA Times on September 27, echoing an article in PLoS One describing the discovery of male fetal DNA in the brains of pregnant women. It was “an astonishing finding,” according to the newspaper, necessitating “a new paradigm of the biological self” according to lead author J. Lee Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington.

I suspect Dr. Nelson was quoted out of context, for the idea of two genetically distinct populations of cells, or their DNA, residing in one individual isn’t new. It’s called microchimerism. Read More 
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