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Genetic Linkage

When a Disease is Genetic but not Inherited: Bea Rienhoff's Story

Hugh and Bea Rienhoff (credit: Leah Fasten)
Genetics is the study of genes, DNA, and variation; heredity is the passing of inherited traits from parents to offspring. Families with one member, typically a child, who has a collection of unusual symptoms that don’t fit any clinical diagnosis may in fact have a genetic disease – but one that arose spontaneously in the child, rather than having been inherited from carrier parents.

Exome sequencing is helping to solve these genetics-but-not-heredity mysteries. The story of one little girl and her father’s efforts to find her mutant gene, and how the tale wove in and out and now back into my human genetics textbook, illustrates the evolution of personalized genomic medicine.

THE BEA PROJECT
When Hugh Rienhoff first saw his daughter Bea, born in December 2003, he knew something was wrong. Her long feet, clenched fingers, poor muscle tone, widely-spaced hazel eyes, and a facial birthmark might have been just peculiarities to anyone who wasn’t also a physician and a geneticist. Read More 
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DNA Day: 20 Years of Writing a Human Genetics Textbook

10 editions of my textbook chronicle the evolution of genomics
This month we celebrate the DNA anniversaries: unveiling of DNA’s structure in 1953, and the human genome sequence in 2003.

From now until DNA Day, April 25, bloggers will be worshipping the human genome. Nature will offer podcasts (“PastCasts”) and last week, Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, spoke to reporters, summarizing the “quantitative advances since the human genome project.”

It’s also the 20th anniversary of my non-science majors textbook, Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications. Writing the 10 editions has given me a panoramic view of the birth of genomics different from those of researchers, physicians, and journalists. Here are a few observations on the evolution of genetics to genomics, as I begin the next edition. Read More 
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