Gene Sequencing Project

Sanford Health is partnering up with Miami Children's Health System to start sequencing the genes of nearly one thousand Latinos and Hispanics to understand the health needs of the populations. Denny Sanford, philanthropist already has given seven million dollars to the children's hospital to support the research. The research consist of using genetics and genomic information to personalize health care for children. The project will make it easier to determine whether a person is more liable to a certain disease and how she or he might respond to a particular medicine. This goal is to produce a database of common genomes and to identify genetic patterns among the Hispanic and Latino populations. 

This is a great way to advance in the future in order to help future-related diseases. To set up such a database will help generations in the future.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/03/03/us/ap-us-sanford-health-sequencing-genes.html

                                                            Is Europe One Big Family?

Research has been done in order to study the genetic relatedness of European people. It was found that people from the U.K. and Turkey shared a large amount of genetic material. Researchers Peter Ralph and Graham Coop used the genomic data of 2,257 Europeans to represent the continent as a whole. In another study DNA was collected from ancient skeletons and it was discovered that people that these class of DNA came from immigrants that were responsible for the genetic makeup of what we know is Europe today. Ralph and Coop as well as other scientists involved in such studies confirmed that each and every individual on this planet is genetically related, even if it is an extremely small percentage. They did, however, note that the ancestry between different types of Europeans was not equally shared.

The article brings into focus that although all of Europe shares similar genetic material, people classify themselves as different and often hold their own prejudices. Besides their genetic relatedness their views on a different population would not change, and therefore cause people to be skeptical about the results of the research despite the evidence given. In all, I feel that this research has shown that although different nationalities appear to look extremely different from each other and have select features that are common within that nationality, looking at one's raw DNA proves that human beings have a common ancestor. This research serves as further evidence on evolution and how mankind evolved from a common ancestor.

Primary Article: http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/genetics-reveal-europe-is-one-big-family/

Secondary Article: http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10557

The Rise of Genomic Data Sharing

Each year the amount of information about humans increases as scientific research increases. Lately, a huge hit amongst human beings is figuring out their own genomic sequences so that they may better themselves or be more prepared to what their futures hold. This article explains how this can be a useful tool, but we should still "proceed with caution." This warning is due to the fact that scientists, as well as this author, are predicting that one's genomic data can be leaked- allowing our government to one day be able to possibly use this information against us in a plethora of ways. I found it to be a bit alarming that this information could be used against us, for example if insurance providers knew how much of a liability you were, health wise, then they might be more reluctant to provide you with their insurance. There are many different outcomes, each with it's own pro's and con's.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/37592/title/Proceed-with-Caution/

http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genomic-data-resources-challenges-and-promises-743721