Category Archives: Genetics

What Do Your Genetics Have to Do With Your Chances of Dying From Coronavirus? – Vanity Fair

April 30, 2020 medical

Six weeks ago, with little fanfare, a network of geneticists launched an obscure but potentially game-changing initiative. Their aim: to learn why people with particular DNA profiles end up dying from the coronavirusor completely avoiding its effects. Ultimately, they want to devise ways for scientists to cook up new therapies that might alter how our nanosize genes operate as a way of reversing or accelerating the pathogens progress. Called the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, the project now involves close to 700 scientists and researchers, worldwide, who are busily comparing DNA data from pandemic victims to literally millions of existing DNA profiles of millions of people.

To appreciate how our genes might be impacted by the onslaught of COVID-19, imagine this: that a tiny, invisible bug is hovering over the surface of a cell inside your bodysay a lung cell. You dont know it yet, but youve just been infected with SARS-Cov-2. Maybe it came from that jogger who whizzed past you on the sidewalk, or that tabletop you touched before rubbing your eyes. Whatever its source, there it is, circulating inside you: a fuzzy, sphere-shaped pathogen thats less than 1/1000 the width of a human hair. Prickly, with spikes on its outside, its searching for a place to plug into and enter your cell. Its a little like a key and a lock, where the key (the virus) wants to slip into the keyhole (a receptor on the cell) and then release a payload that will be up to no good.

Except that, in some people, the virus-key doesnt fit the lock and is blocked from entering the cell. In others, it slips right in, leading to illness and sometimes to rapid deterioration and even death. One potential differencesay geneticists who are working day and night to better understand how SARS-Cov-2 invades and attacks our cellsmight be because your DNA code differs from mine. Yours might inherently spurn the virus at the cellular level; mine might make me more susceptible.

So what determines who gets dangerously sick? We know that people who are older and have underlying diseases like diabetes and heart disease are at higher risk for having a bad response to COVID-19, explained Mark Daly, a 52-year-old geneticist and the director of the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Helsinki, Finland. Other factors include higher risk biases that involve ethnicity, class, vocation, geographic location, and the medical resources available at the time of treatment. And yet, according to Daly, this doesnt explain why relatively healthy people, including young people, are sometimes having severe and life-threatening reactions such as very high fevers, pneumonia, and difficulty with breathing that requires oxygen and sometimes a ventilator. Most likely this has something to do with differences in their genes.

Daly should know. With his Paul Reverelike ponytail, circular hippie glasses, and lean, determined face, hes a pioneer of modern genetics who was a key player during and after the Human Genome Project, the huge international effort in the 1990s and early 2000s that sequenced the first-ever human genome. And as the pandemic has been raging, Daly, a physicist, decided to help spearhead a remarkable hive-mind effort: the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative.

The project was announced on March 16 in a tweet posted by Dalys cohort Andrea Ganna: Goal: aggregate genetic and clinical information on individuals affected by COVID-19. The response was immediate. Within days, scientists from over 150 organizations in more than 30 countries on six continents agreed to join. Thats the ideal use of the hive mind: a conglomeration of big brains and, in this case, their disparate data sources, to solve one huge problem. Participants have come not only from Harvard and MIT (institutions with which Daly has ongoing affiliations) and the usual institutional suspects in North America, Europe, and the wealthier Asian countries, but also from the Qatar Genome Program, Vietnams SARS-Cov-2 Susceptibility Program, and CLHORAZbased in Burkina Faso.

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What Do Your Genetics Have to Do With Your Chances of Dying From Coronavirus? - Vanity Fair

Genetics

Data On Thousands Of Twins Reveals How Genetics Influences Covid-19 Symptoms – IFLScience

April 30, 2020 medical

Taking a deep look at data on thousands of twins has shown how some Covid-19 symptoms might be more influenced by our genetics than others.

Researchers at Kings College London analyzed data on 2,633 identical and fraternal twins who have been using their Covid-19 Symptom Tracker app, which also includes the data of 2.7 million other users.The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, can be found on the preprint server medRxiv.

Their preliminary findings suggest that genetic factors could be responsible for about 50 percent of the differences between peoples symptoms of Covid-19, the list of which seems to be ever-growing.The development of some key Covid-19 symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, shortness of breath, diarrhea, and the loss of taste and smell, appear to be strongly influenced by genes. On the other hand, environmental factors appear to explain the development of symptoms such as a hoarse voice, cough, chest pain, and abdominal pain. Thispotentially explains why the virus appears to impact some people severely while others experience relatively mild or no symptoms.

The Covid-19 Symptom Tracker app asks people in the UK on a daily basis about the presence or absence of common symptoms. You can check out the latest figures from the app on itsinteractive map.The +2,600 twins using the app were recruited from TwinsUK, one of the most detailed research projects on twins in the world. Together, this information was used to see whether typical symptoms of a likely COVID-19 infection were more or less common in identical twins (who share 100 percent of their genes) compared with non-identical twins (who share 50 percent of their genes,just like regular full siblings).

The idea was to basically look at the similarities in symptoms or non-symptoms between the identical twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, and the non-identical twins, who only share half of their genes, Professor Tim Spector, a genetic epidemiologist at Kings College London, toldThe Guardian.This disease is very weird, the way it has a very different presentation in the population in different people what we are showing is that [it] isnt random. It is not mainly due to where you live or who you have seen; a lot of it is something innate about you."

There are some drawbacks to the research, namely because all the results are based on self-reporting, which means a fair amount of subjectivity might sneak into the results. Nevertheless, the unique project offers a rare opportunity for scientists to study large amounts of data on Covid-19 from people who have not sought out medical attention.

Our twins are fantastically committed, enthusiastic health research participants who have already been studied in unprecedented detail, putting us in a unique position to provide vital answers to support the global fight against Covid-19, Professor Spector said in a statement.

The more of the public that also use the app, the better the real-time data we will have to combat the outbreak.

Genetics

DNA data from genetics tests to be used on Covid-19 symptoms research – Express

April 30, 2020 medical

Tens of thousands of patients who bought self-testing kits from 23andMe have agreed to document their experience with the disease.The experiment is being carried out in aid to have further understanding why some patients suffer more sever symptoms than others.

The kits were initially bought with the purpose of finding out more about the persons family history, or if they had a genetic propensity to conditions from baldness to diabetes, or even Alzheimer's.

Over the years, 23andMe has accumulated a information of more than 10 million genetic profiles, and claims that 80 percent of its customers have agreed to the use of that data, once anonymised, for research.

Earlier this year 23andMe disclosed that it had sold the rights to an anti-inflammatory drug that it had developed using consumer data to the Spanish pharmaceutical firm Almirall.

The comprehensive questionnaire hopes will eventually have hundreds of thousands of entries.

The survey to assist the creation of a coronavirus treatment by identifying which genes may contribute to worsening its symptoms.

Adam Auton, 23andMes Principal Scientist leading efforts on its coronavirus research, said: We need to develop therapeutics to help treat this disease,

We are trying to contribute to the basic research that will move the scientific field forward... making it available to the scientific community at large and that will include pharma, including our partners as well.

Mr Auton claims the surveys findings should be ready by the summer.

The results of the research will be freely available to access.

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There is no guarantee that a clear genetic link will be found, but any clues may help in treatment probes.

There really is tremendous value in being able to use genetic information to help understand why diseases take the courses that they do, and present opportunities to intervene and prevent people some getting very sick, says Mr Auton.

The study asks 23andMe customers to fill in a questionnaire that includes questions like whether they've had flu or COVID-like symptoms? Have they had a test? Was that test positive?

If it was positive, how were they, and what were their symptoms? Did they seek medical attention, were they hospitalised?

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Those who complete the survey are also given the opportunity to describe the experiences of consenting relatives.

Mr Auton said: By using this kind of survey type approach we hope we're able to collect data from quite large numbers of individuals, which is really kind of the necessary requirement for these types of genetic studies.

There is, he says, a reasonably short list of genetic suspects which the research will analyse to see if they influence the diseases progress.

Generally, a part of the genome known as the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system is considered relevant as it establishes how the immune system responds to infections.

Immune response is an important topic of research into coronavirus as an overactive reaction can complicate symptoms.

Another area of research is the gene known as ACE2, which produces a protein believed to be a principal route into human cells for coronaviruses.

That is something we will certainly be paying particular attention to, says Mr Auton.

In 2015, 23andMe introduced a therapeutics divisions in a bid to capitalise on drug research through its genetic data and in 2018 signed a $300m deal with GSK to refine the UK pharma firms drug development targets.

Earlier this year GSKs CEO Emma Walmsley said that the first such target selected using 23andMe would be recommended for clinical tests by the end of this year.

Frankly, developing novel medicines and novel therapies is very, very difficult and requires huge numbers of people working for many many years on reasonably uncertain projects, says Mr Auton.

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DNA data from genetics tests to be used on Covid-19 symptoms research - Express

Genetics

Genetic testing helps find cancer possibilities: Waco nurse dealt with breast cancer caused by mutation – Waco Tribune-Herald

April 30, 2020 medical

Shawnna Latino had few concerns as she awaited the results of her biopsy for breast cancer in 2015. After all, she was a registered nurse who understood the ramifications of the disease, and she had done all the right things regular self-examinations and never-missed yearly mammograms.

So when a mammogram detected calcifications in one of her breasts, she thought they were simple benign calcium deposits.

When the results came back from the biopsy, I was shocked, she said. She had tested positive for breast cancer.

The diagnosis was particularly troubling because of Shawnnas family medical history, which is fraught with cancer. Her mother at age 70 had been diagnosed with breast cancer just eight months before her daughters test results.

At the same time, Shawnnas brother was battling aggressive prostate cancer, which eventually took his life. Their maternal grandmother had died of cancer, as had the grandmothers five sisters. A maternal aunt had died of pancreatic cancer, and her daughter, Shawnnas cousin, was diagnosed with the same disease soon afterward.

Shawnna Latino with her mom, Dietra Dede Lucas (left), and her daughter, Bailee Norris, during Shawnnas chemo and radiation treatment.

When Shawnna consulted with her oncologist, Dr. Thomas J. Harris at Texas Oncology in Waco, he wanted to conduct genetic testing, something that is done as needed at the oncology clinic.

She thought it unlikely that she might have a gene mutation, which can indicate a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer as well as other cancers. The mutation affects only a small percentage of the population.

However, once more, Shawnna found herself with a positive test result, this time for mutation of the BRCA-2 gene.

I never imagined it would be positive, she said.

They then tested her mother and discovered the same genetic problem. The women found out later that Shawnnas maternal cousin was in the same boat. She has the exact mutation that my mom and I have, she said.

Mutation

BRCA 1 & 2 are tumor suppressor genes that prevent uncontrolled cell growth and help keep normal cells from becoming cancerous. If either is mutated, a woman will have a 40-70% risk of having breast cancer and 27-44% chance of ovarian cancer during her lifetime.

In men, such mutations can result in male breast cancer (6% risk) or prostate cancer (20%). Both genders are also at risk for melanoma and pancreatic cancer.

Just as troubling, if not more so, is the fact that people of either gender with the mutation have a 50% chance of passing it to their children, which keeps the cancer cycle going throughout generations.

The last thing you want to do is pass it on to your child, Shawnna said. Her biggest fear was that her daughter, Bailee Norris, may have inherited the mutation. However, genetic testing showed that Bailee had not, a great relief to her mother.

Dr. Carlos Encarnacin, breast cancer and genetics specialist at Texas Oncology, said, Cancer is a genetic disease, but it is not always inherited.

Most cancers are sporadic, he said, caused by lifestyle choices like smoking or other unknown factors, but some develop through a mutated gene (like BRCA) inherited from either parent.

Dr. Carlos Encarnacin, a breast cancer and genetics specialist at Texas Oncology, says genetic testing has become an integral part of oncology.

The doctors at Texas Oncology treat all types of cancer using radiation and drugs, but they also work to identify cancer risks in a timely manner.

Our focus is early detection and prevention, Encarnacin said.

A person considered at high probability because of family history or other factors should have a risk assessment, starting with an interview and an estimation of risk. If testing is deemed necessary, a blood or saliva test can be done to see if theres a mutation. The price of testing has gone down dramatically, and insurance often covers the cost or at least part of it.

Importance

Is genetic counseling important for much of the population?

Absolutely, Encarnacin said. If a patient had cancer or has family history of cancer, he or she should have a risk evaluation and maybe genetic testing.

He suggests that people discuss this with their family doctor and be referred to a specialist if necessary. Its important that the counseling and testing be administered by those who are specifically trained for it.

Genetics has become an integral part of oncology, and it will keep changing over time, he said. Researchers found the first cancer-related gene, BRCA-1, in the mid-1990s, but new genes related to various types of cancer are being identified regularly.

Reduction of cancer risk in BRCA carriers can be achieved in a couple of ways, including hormone blocker pills or preventative mastectomies.

However, he said of the mastectomy, Not everyone with a BRCA mutation has to choose that. They may prefer an enhanced cancer surveillance program.

Women with BRCA mutations who do not intend to have more children should strongly consider having their ovaries removed to lessen their chance of a deadly ovarian cancer, Encarnacin said.

Decisions

For Shawnna, when she learned of her breast cancer and gene mutation, the choice was clear. Though the cancer was only in one breast, she said, I decided to have both removed and be done with it.

After surgery for the removal and reconstruction, she went through chemo and radiation treatments, continuing to work as a nurse every day except for Wednesdays, her treatment days.

I think that had a lot to do with my well-being, she said.

Genetic testing showed that Shawnna Latinos mom Dietra Dede Lucas also has a gene mutation, but her daughter Bailee Norris does not.

Later that year, she had a complete hysterectomy to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer.

Because she has the BRCA mutation, she is screened each year for pancreatic cancer and also must be seen by a dermatologist once a year to check for melanoma.

In the meantime, Shawnna and her husband, dentist Chad Latino, and children Bailee, Aidan and Tristan are moving on with life by enjoying every day to the fullest. And, along with friends and business partners Scott and Michelle Irwin, they have begun a new enterprise.

The four of them will be keeping their current jobs but are planning to open a hatchet-throwing business whenever the current pandemic subsides. Stumpys Hatchet House, which is in a Waco historic building at 924 Austin Ave., was due to open before the coronavirus hit.

With a laugh, she says of the venture, It was kind of a coincidental thing. Sure, we said. We all have full-time jobs. Lets start a business!

Shawnna has a joyful attitude that is apparent. Of her cancer experiences, she said, There were so many blessings in that journey. I never asked why me? It was always why not me?

She considers genetic testing essential.

Its so important to know your health history and your family history, she said. It can save your life. Knowledge is power, and its very empowering to know about yourself.

As Shawnna found out, sharing your medical history with family is also highly important to alert others to possible inherited genetic mutations.

Genetics

Genetic scientists map spread of Covid-19 in New Zealand – RNZ

April 30, 2020 medical

Genetic scientists mapping the spread of Covid-19 say that as few as 35 cases may have led to the outbreak here.

A 3D model of the Covid-19 coronavirus. Photo: Supplied

ESR (Institute of Environmental Science and Research) has been analysing virus samples to try to build a comprehensive picture of how it has spread through the country - and how it has mutated along the way.

The scientists' ultimate goal is to genetically map every single case, which could provide invaluable insights in the fight against the disease.

New Zealand's first Covid-19 case was reported on 28 February - a person in their 60s who had arrived from Iran.

Just one month later, the entire country was in lockdown, with the borders shut tight and all but essential services forced to close.

ESR's head of bioinformatics, Joep de Ligt, said the genomic sequencing that has been carried out so far indicates the outbreak was generated by remarkably few cases.

"At the moment there's at least 35 unique introductions. They've come from all over the world, so we've seen them from Europe, from Iran, from North America," he said.

"This is consistent with what other countries have seen - it was these international travellers who have brought it in during that narrow window before the borders have closed."

The scientists look at Covid-19 samples and, due to tiny mutations that occur as the virus spreads, they are able to trace the chain of transmission and determine their origin.

"It's a bit like Where's Wally? Or Spot the Difference, where you have the picture from the original virus and you compare that [with the picture from new cases] and look for the difference."

Their ultimate goal is to analyse every single case here.

So far they have sequenced 125 samples from the 623 cases that have been sent to ESR.

Dr Jemma Geoghegan from the University of Otago's Department of Microbiology and Immunology has been analysing and interpreting the data.

She said the low number of infected people puts scientists in a good position to build a complete picture of the virus in this country.

"We're in a really unique position to be able to do that. It will provide us with a really amazing data set to help us understand how the virus spread here, what happened when we closed our borders, what happened when we went into level 4 lockdown, for example, and as we begin to lift those lockdown restrictions, what happens to transmission of the virus."

Infectious diseases expert Professor David Murdoch said understanding the genetics of the virus was a hugely helpful supplement to more traditional contact tracing, which could rely on assumptions and people's memories.

"Most of the information we get about identifying the source and how the transmission chain has occurred is through interviews and finding out what people have done and the contacts they've had," he said.

"That's obviously very useful but the genetic material as well gives a different and in many ways much finer detail about the specific strain that people have - where the transmission chain has come from, where the virus may have been imported from and who has had contact with who."

Scientists have obtained the DNA sequence from the first confirmed Covid-19 case and so far there is no evidence to suggest the virus was here before 28 February.

Read more about the Covid-19 coronavirus:

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Genetic scientists map spread of Covid-19 in New Zealand - RNZ

Genetics

Syphilis Alters Its Genetics to Evade the Immune System – SciTechDaily

April 30, 2020 medical

A watercolor-like illustration of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis. Credit: Alice C. Gray

By shuffling DNA in and out of one gene, syphilis stays a step ahead of the immune system to resist eradication.

The bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum, likely uses a single gene to escape the immune system, research from UW Medicine in Seattle suggests.

The finding may help explain how syphilis can hide in the body for decades, thereby frustrating the immune systems attempts to eradicate it. It might also account for the bacteriums ability to re-infect people who had been previously been infected and should have acquired some immunity to it.

Although syphilis remains easily treated with penicillin, infection rates in the United States have increased steadily over the past two decades. The count rose to more than 115,000 new U.S. cases of the infection in 2018.

Worldwide there are an estimated 6 million new cases of syphilis among adults. The infection is responsible for an estimated 300,000 fetal and neonatal deaths annually.

However, despite its importance as a cause of disease, relatively little is known about the biology of Treponema pallidum.

One reason for this is that until recently it was impossible to grow it in a laboratory dish. As a consequence, many of the laboratory tools used to study other bacteria had not been developed for syphilis specifically.

In a new study, researchers compared the genomes of syphilis bacteria collected from a man who had been infected four times. He was enrolled in a UW Medicine study of spinal fluid abnormalities in individuals with syphilis conducted by Dr. Christina Marra, professor of neurolgy.

The samples were derived from his blood during two infections that occurred six years apart. Between those infections he had been infected and treated two additional times.

The researchers wanted to see if there were differences between the genomes of bacteria from the first and last infection. These differences might reveal how the genes of the bacteria had changed and how those changes might have enabled the bacteria to infect a person whose immune system had already seen and mounted an immune response to several different strains of syphilis.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that there were very few changes between the genomes from the two different samples except for one gene.

Across the about 1.1 million bases that make up the bacterias genome there were about 20 changes total. Thats very low, said Dr. Alex Greninger, assistant professor of laboratory medicine at the UW School of Medicine, who led the research project. But on this one gene, we saw hundreds of changes.

That gene, called Treponema pallidum repeat gene K (tprK), provides the instructions for the synthesis of a protein found on the surface of the bacterium. Proteins on the surface of a bacterium are typically more easily seen by immune cells and so are often prime targets for immune attack.

The study builds on decades of work from Drs. Sheila Lukehart and Arturo Centurion-Lara in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

They first showed that TprK generated considerable diversity across seven discrete regions in which DNA sequences from elsewhere in the bacteriums genome could be swapped in and out. This process is called gene conversion.

Work in their lab demonstrated that bacterial cells with new tprK variants can evade the immune response to cause a persistent infection that can lead to the later stages of syphilis.

Amin Addetia, a research scientist in Greningers lab and lead author on the study, said it was as though the bacterium has a deck of cards in its genome from which it can draw and deal to these variable regions, essentially changing the proteins hand. These substitutions change the proteins appearance on the surface to allow it to elude the immune system.

Ive looked at a lot of bacterial genomes, Addetia said, and theyre a lot more interesting than the Treponemas, except for this one gene.It can generate an astounding number of diverse sequences within these variable regions without impairing the proteins ability to function.

Although bacteria, viruses and parasites may have many proteins on their surfaces that the immune system could detect and attack, in many cases only one protein seems to attract most of the attention. Such proteins are called immunodominant.

They may protect the bacterium by catching the immune systems attention, Greninger said. The protein acts like a distraction that draws the immune system away from proteins that might be the bacteriums Achilles heel. More work will be required to determine if this is the case in TprK.

Greninger said he hoped the findings might help researchers develop vaccines that allow the immune system either to attack TprK more effectively or to ignore TprK and target other, less variable syphilis proteins.

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Reference: Comparative Genomics and Full-Length TprK Profiling of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum Reinfection by Amin Addetia, Lauren C. Tantalo, Michelle J. Lin, Hong Xie, Meei-Li Huang, Christina M. Marra, Alexander L. Greninger, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007921

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Syphilis Alters Its Genetics to Evade the Immune System - SciTechDaily

Genetics

How to find Genetic Heritage Instagram filter? Here is how to use the fun filter – Republic World – Republic World

April 30, 2020 medical

People are spending their time in the coronavirus quarantine either by doing something at their homes or by sitting and exploring social media. There are many Instagram filters that are available on the app that people use in order to have fun and pass their time. These effects notonly entertain but also help in uplifting the moods of people.

(Source: Instagram Explore Page)

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One of the most recently trending Instagram filters that people are keenly enjoying is the one that tells you about your Genetic Heritage. The name of the filter is 'Genetics Scanner'. It is made by Instagram user @iamcraiglewis2.

The Genetic Heritage filter is a funny Instagram filter. When one applies the filter, their face is shown to be getting scanned from top to bottom. And then at the end, the person is said to be any kind of a funny reptile or animal as the animation stretches out and also makes one's face in the shape of that animal.

A post shared by Craig Lewis (@iamcraiglewis2) on Apr 28, 2020 at 1:48am PDT

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One can go on Instagram's story camera and select the 'Browse Effects' section. The next step is to search for the filter 'Genetics Scanner' on the Effects gallery. The filter option comes up and one can select it and use it.

A post shared by (Molly) (@iheartmills_) on Apr 28, 2020 at 12:06pm PDT

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Genetics

Coronavirus was widespread in UK at very start of pandemic, says genetics expert – Sky News

April 27, 2020 medical

One of the world's leading human genetics experts has told Sky News that coronavirus was widespread in the UK at the very start of the pandemic and a lack of vigilance allowed the virus to take hold.

Dr Kari Stefansson is overseeing a massive project in Iceland to genetically sequence every positive case of COVID-19 in the country to find out how it mutates and spreads.

He spoke to Sky News at the headquarters of his company deCODE Genetics in Reykjavik, which houses a massive database of more than half the Icelandic population's genetic material.

Founded almost a quarter of a century ago, the samples are used to look into the genetic components of diseases. Now he's looking into COVID-19.

He says sequencing tells them where the cases come from.

"So the virus now has basically a barcode for every part of the world," he said.

"There is a collection of mutation that is relatively characteristic for Austria, another for Italy as well as Great Britain and for the west coast of the United States etc."

Prof Stefansson said that in the beginning, almost all of the cases came into Iceland from the Alps, from people who had been skiing in Austria and Italy.

The authorities responded by trying to contain the spread of infection from those high risk countries.

He added: "But as they were doing this, the virus was actually sneaking into the country with people from all kinds of other countries.

"And the most notable there is Great Britain. So it looks like the virus had a fairly wide spread in Great Britain very, very early in this epidemic."

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Prof Stefansson said the UK - and the USA - weren't vigilant enough from the start, pointing to Iceland's policy of mass testing.

Iceland has now tested a higher percentage of the population than any other nation. 45,000 tests have been carried out in a population of 460,000.

deCODE is working alongside the health service to take samples from as many people as possible - the sick as well as the seemingly healthy.

Dr Stefansson says that is the only way to discover the true spread of the disease in the community.

The policy has allowed Iceland to identify cases quickly and isolate carriers.

After it was suggested that it is easier for a small nation to test and bring the virus under control, he replied: "Yes, there may be fewer of us but countries like the United Kingdom and the United States have much, much more resources than we do.

"It is all just a question of using what you have. They weren't vigilant enough. They didn't react to this early enough.

"You know, the countries that taught us the methods that we are using, in doing this in a place like Iceland, they didn't use it themselves. And that is tragic."

As well as testing for COVID-19, deCODE is also taking blood from volunteers to test for antibodies to fight the virus.

And the company is examining whether there is a genetic component to coronavirus.

Dr Stefansson says it is curious how different people respond to the virus.

"There are those who describe this as a mild cold," he said.

"There are those who end up in the intensive care unit on a respirator. And there is everything in between.

"We know that women have less tendency to get infected than men. And if they get infected, they don't get as sick as men. What is it that generates this clinical diversity?"

That is the big question that needs answering, he says, and deCODE has already begun sharing its findings in the hope of finding an answer.

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Coronavirus was widespread in UK at very start of pandemic, says genetics expert - Sky News

Genetics

Medical Information of 233,000 Individuals Exposed after Genetic Testing Lab Hack – Security Boulevard

April 27, 2020 medical

As the tab for security incidents in 2020 remains open, cybercriminals are diligently looking for new ways to attack and capitalize on valuable healthcare information. More than 143 security incidents have been added to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Breach Reporting Tool since the beginning of the year, and bad actors are not showing signs of halting their disruptive actions any time soon.

Last months showstopper is Ambry Genetics, a California-based genetic testing laboratory that revealed a security incident potentially exposing the personal health information (PHI) of 233,000 customers, including:

Customer names Medical information Information related to customers use of the genetic laboratorys services Limited amount of Social Security numbers

In accordance with HIPPA Breach Notification Rule, the company has published a notice on its official page, detailing the events. Between 22 and 24 January, Ambrys security team noticed unauthorized access to one of their employee accounts and started investigating the incident. Although the company found no clear signs of misuse, it does not rule out the exposure of customer personal information.

The investigation was unable to determine whether there was unauthorized access to, or acquisition of, any particular information from the email account, and we are not aware of any misuse of any personal information. Nevertheless, we are notifying our customers because customer personal information may have been impacted, reads the Substitute Notice.

As a preventive measure, Ambry Genetics is now offering customers free identity monitoring services to affected individuals and reassures customers that they have taken the necessary steps to avoid any future incidents.

The high number of potentially exposed medical records put customers at risk of falling victim to medical identity theft and fraud. Using the stolen information, cyber thieves can make fake medical claims and steal a victims insurance, and even send out extortion emails that demand payment for not revealing any sensitive information.

Its important for potential victims to be wary of any unsolicited emails they might find in the Inbox, keep an eye on their medical bills, and review their medical records for any suspicious entries.

Algorithm Developed to Predict the Evolution of Genetic Mutations – SciTechDaily

April 27, 2020 medical

The algorithm called minimum epistasis interpolation results in a visualization of how a protein could evolve to either become highly effective or not effective at all. They compared the functionality of thousands of versions of the protein, finding patterns in how mutations cause the protein to evolve from one functional form to another. Credit: McCandlish lab/CSHL, 2020

Quantitative biologists David McCandlish and Juannan Zhou at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have developed an algorithm with predictive power, giving scientists the ability to see how specific genetic mutations can combine to make critical proteins change over the course of a species evolution.

Described in Nature Communications, the algorithm called minimum epistasis interpolation results in a visualization of how a protein could evolve to either become highly effective or not effective at all. They compared the functionality of thousands of versions of the protein, finding patterns in how mutations cause the protein to evolve from one functional form to another.

Epistasis describes any interaction between genetic mutations in which the effect of one gene is dependent upon the presence of another. In many cases, scientists assume that when reality does not align with their predictive models, these interactions between genes are at play. With this in mind, McCandlish created this new algorithm with the assumption that every mutation matters. The term Interpolation describes the act of predicting the evolutionary path of mutations a species might undergo to achieve optimal protein function.

The researchers created the algorithm by testing the effects of specific mutations occurring in the genes that make streptococcal GB1 protein. They chose the GB1 protein because of its complex structure, which would generate enormous numbers of possible mutations that could be combined in an enormous number of possible ways.

Because of this complexity, visualization of this data set became so important, says McCandlish. We wanted to turn the numbers into a picture so that we can understand better what [the data] is telling us.

The visualization is like a topological map. Height and color correlate with the level of protein activity and distance between points on the map represents how long it takes for the mutations to evolve to that level of activity.

The GB1 protein begins in nature with a modest level of protein activity, but may evolve to a level of higher protein activity through a series of mutations that occur in several different places.

A photo of David McCandlish in his office. He is pointing to a visualization of what he calls the protein GB1s evolutionary space. Credit: CSHL, 2020

McCandlish likens the evolutionary path of the protein to hiking, where the protein is a hiker trying to get to the highest or best mountain peaks most efficiently. Genes evolve in the same manner: with a mutation seeking the path of least resistance and increased efficiency.

To get to the next best high peak in the mountain range, the hiker is more likely to travel along the ridgeline than hike all the way back down to the valley. Going along the ridgeline efficiently avoids another potentially tough ascent. In the visualization, the valley is the blue area, where combinations of mutations result in the lowest levels of protein activity.

The algorithm shows how optimal each possible mutant sequence is and how long it will take for one genetic sequence to mutate into any of many other possible sequences. The predictive power of the tool could prove particularly valuable in situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers need to know how a virus is evolving in order to know where and when to intercept it before it reaches its most dangerous form.

McCandlish explains that the algorithm can also help understand the genetic routes that a virus might take as it evolves to evade the immune system or gain drug resistance. If we can understand the likely routes, then maybe we can design therapies that can prevent the evolution of resistance or immune evasion.

There are additional potential applications for such a predictive genetic algorithm, including drug development and agriculture.

You know, at the very beginning of genetics there was all this interesting speculation as to what these genetic spaces would look like if you could actually look at them, McCandlish added. Now were really doing it! Thats really cool.

Reference: Minimum epistasis interpolation for sequence-function relationships by Juannan Zhou and David M. McCandlish, 14 April 2020, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15512-5

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Algorithm Developed to Predict the Evolution of Genetic Mutations - SciTechDaily