Blog Comments

Kinetica Online is pleased to provide direct links to commentaries from our senior editor Dr. Steven Pelech has posted on other blogs sites. Most of these comments appear on the GenomeWeb Daily Scan website, which in turn highlight interesting blogs that have been posted at numerous sites in the blogosphere since the beginning of 2010. A wide variety of topical subjects are covered ranging from the latest scientific breakthroughs, research trends, politics and career advice. The original blogs and Dr. Pelech’s comments are summarized here under the title of the original blog. Should viewers wish to add to these discussions, they should add their comments at the original blog sites.

The views expressed by Dr. Pelech do not necessarily reflect those of the other management and staff at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation. However, we wish to encourage healthy debate that might spur improvements in how biomedical research is supported and conducted.

Disease diagnosis

A Clinical Option

Based on the successful identification through genome-wide sequencing of a mutation associated with immune disorders on the X chromosome of six-year-old Nicholas Volker that could be behind his severe inflammatory bowel disease, it has been proposed by Howard Jacob, director the Human and Molecular Genetics Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin that similar genome sequencing should be a standard clinical option for children with rare, inherited diseases. S. Pelech comments that gene-wide-sequencing is impractical for the diagnoses of common diseases in the general population where most health care costs are borne. He also notes that in the case of Nicholas Volker's genome, it was not established that this mutation actually produces an immune disorder, nor was it clear that even with a causal link to the responsible gene that this knowledge could lead to an effective treatment. Read More...