“A unified genetic theory for sporadic and inherited autism”

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

“Transposable Elements” by Swivelchair, all rights (if any) totally waived. This work was inspired by the work of Dr. Barbara McClintock.

Here’s today’s research paper:Zhao, X., Leotta, A., Kustanovich, V., Lajonchere, C., Geschwind, D.H., Law, K., Law, P., Qiu, S., Lord, C., Sebat, J., Ye, K., Wigler, M. (2007). A unified genetic theory for sporadic and [...]

White matter days: Tantrums and white matter — tracking down clues

Sunday, January 13th, 2008

 
Tantruming is a behavior found across a variety of conditions — including neurological ones.  Is there a basic biological reason that tantruming is a “default” dysfunction?
Adults who tantrum, my theory is, have something going on in their wiring. Low frustrational tolerance, road rage, intermittant explosive disorder — all have some biochemical aspect or a lack [...]

Fragile X is possibly fixable!

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

Neuron — Dölen et al.
New report: Potential relief for Fragile X sufferers.
Fragile X can be simulated in a mouse if you knock out a gene (FMR1). If you further block a receptor — called mGlu5 (metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 or MGR5) — the behavioral symptoms can altered. In the mouse model, the could genetically [...]

Fragile X research: A boy’s Fragile X gene reverts to normal and premutation carriers produce antisense DNA

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

Imagine you are a 10 year old and your whole life you’ve lived with two mentally disabled brothers who have Fragile X. You are told you have the thing in your body that could make you have problems when you are older, too. And then one day, you are told you are fixed.
I can’t [...]

International Multi-Center ADHD Project

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

International Multi-Center ADHD Genetics Project
“The goal of the project is to complete a 600,000 tag SNP genome-wide association scan of 958 parent-child trios from the International Multisite ADHD Genetics (IMAGE) project, in order to assess the association of SNP markers with ADHD, analyze quantitative ADHD phenotypes, complete copy number analyses, assess parent of [...]

Daylight savings time ends November 4 unless you have CLOCK gene polymorphism rs1801260

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

For 2007, November 4 is when we (in the US ) set our clocks back an hour so we get an extra hour sleep. But, whether or not you actually go to sleep is another matter. One genetic polymorphism correlates with being a “night owl” as well as other conditions.

As far as standard time, [...]

The meanest grandmothers live the longest

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Ernst Haeckel, Nepenthaceae (click to enlarge and print)
Nepenthaceae are meat-eating plants — they seduce a fly and then drown it. The latin term “nepenthe” means without grief .
And this brings me to the point: sometimes people get so mean over their lifetimes that no one grieves for them when they’re dead. Is [...]

De-evolution or D-E-V-O was right

Saturday, October 6th, 2007

Protein mis-folding is really a problem — it can be the basis for devastating disease.
Now, from an evolutionary perspective, the more specific the protein structure, the more highly evolved the purpose of the protein. Or, the more generic the protein structure, the less-evolved.
And this is the point of this post: Researchers figured out that [...]

Neurological Correlates: Going on Anti-Depressants and Thinking “I’d rather be dead”

Saturday, September 29th, 2007

Cruickshank, George, “Suicide”
“A young woman has jumped from a bridge; two onlookers are standing on the bridge in upper right corner; ship masts are visible in lower left beneath the arch of the bridge through which shines a full moon.”
Regarding suicide - from the US CDC:
• Among young adults ages 15 to 24 years [...]

The meanest grandmother lives the longest

Friday, September 28th, 2007

I bet this explains why people get worse as they get older.Have you ever wondered why an older person is unduly hostile?Could be trinucleotide repeats.
These tri-nucleotide repeat disorders really mess up your brain, probably by shutting down mitochondria (via excess iron, is one hypothesis).
See the abstracts below. Pre-Huntington’s, has elevated hostility as well as [...]