2017 SCGS Webinar Series

Want to continue your genealogical education throughout the year but have a limited travel budget? The 2017 Jamboree Webinar Extension Series of the Southern California Genealogical Society offers some of the best offerings from its Jamboree conference presentations throughout the year and makes them accessible to you in your home. 

My presentation partner Beth Balkite and I make an appearance next October 18th as we present Family History + Health History Lead to Personalized Healthcare:

Genealogies record family relationships. Health histories reveal causes of death, disabilities, chronic diseases, or known genetic disorders within families. How can you build an accurate family health/medical history? Should you? Can genealogists lead the way to personalized healthcare/medicine?

For those of you who are not familiar with Beth's background, here is a summary of why I am delighted to partner with her:  Beth Balkite was a certified genetic counselor for over 30 years. She is an alum of the Graduate Program in Human Genetics at Sarah Lawrence College. She worked as a genetic counselor in Connecticut at the University of Connecticut Health Center, Yale University, and Norwalk Hospital prior to joining Genzyme Genetics as manager of Clinical Genetics Services in 1993. In 1998 she was hired as Genetics Education Strategy Advisor for GlaxoSmithKline. She has continued as a genetics educator in several capacities before retiring in 2012. She has studied her own family history for years and is now one of just two genetic counselors to practice and teach genetic genealogy. She is an instructor at the Osher Life Long Learning Institute (OLLI) at Duke University in Durham, NC, where she teaches a course “Applying DNA to Your Family Tree.” In the summer of 2016 she taught a session in the Advanced Genetic Genealogy course at GRIP (Genealogy Research Institute of Pittsburgh). 

Hope you will join us for this presentation and discussion.

A full description of the 2017 offerings is now available for this rich and diverse series.

Stanford Medical School Teaches Genomics

Stanford University School of Medicine is researching the most effective methods to teach fundamental genomics. It turns out that one activity that boosts mastery of course content by 31% is something many of you have done already. It was to test their own genome and use the results in the course. This result was published June 23rd week in an article entitled "Evidence That Personal Genome Testing Enhances Student Learning in a Course on Genomics and Personalized Medicine". The abstract said in part:

An emerging debate in academic medical centers is not about the need for providing trainees with fundamental education on genomics, but rather the most effective educational models that should be deployed. 

We hypothesized that use of personal genome testing in the classroom would enhance the learning experience of students.

Undergoing personal genome testing and using personal genotype data in the classroom enhanced students' self-reported and assessed knowledge of genomics, and did not appear to cause significant anxiety.

Just three years ago it was reported in Inside Stanford Medicine that:

The question of whether to offer personal genotyping to students has undergone a yearlong, vigorous debate by a medical school task force.... Although not all task force members favored such a class, a majority recommended its adoption. School officials agreed. 

This is a positive step forward in bringing the future physicians into the age of personalized genomic medicine.

The question of whether to offer personal genotyping to students has undergone a yearlong, vigorous debate by a medical school task force, with course organizers addressing concerns that were raised by members of the group. - See more at: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/june/genotype.html#sthash.fVAKPxLz.dpuf

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The question of whether to offer personal genotyping to students has undergone a yearlong, vigorous debate by a medical school task force, with course organizers addressing concerns that were raised by members of the group. Although not all task force members favored such a class, a majority recommended its adoption. School officials agreed that the course should be offered, given the numerous safeguards built into the curriculum by the organizers. - See more at: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/june/genotype.html#sthash.fVAKPxLz.dpuf

The question of whether to offer personal genotyping to students has undergone a yearlong, vigorous debate by a medical school task force, with course organizers addressing concerns that were raised by members of the group. Although not all task force members favored such a class, a majority recommended its adoption. School officials agreed that the course should be offered, given the numerous safeguards built into the curriculum by the organizers. - See more at: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/june/genotype.html#sthash.fVAKPxLz.dpuf

The question of whether to offer personal genotyping to students has undergone a yearlong, vigorous debate by a medical school task force, with course organizers addressing concerns that were raised by members of the group. Although not all task force members favored such a class, a majority recommended its adoption. School officials agreed that the course should be offered, given the numerous safeguards built into the curriculum by the organizers. - See more at: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/june/genotype.html#sthash.fVAKPxLz.dpuf

“Genomes, Hype, and a Realistic Pathway to Personalized Medicine”

Earlier this month I was privileged to attend a very interesting and informative presentation that was the first of the 2012/13 Chancellors' Lecture Series at Vanderbilt University. It was presented by Dr. Dan Roden and was entitled 

“Genomes, Hype, and a Realistic Pathway to Personalized Medicine”

Since most of you do not live two miles from Vanderbilt University, you will have to settle for a YouTube like version of his presentation which is linked above.

In addition to my intense interest in the subject matter, Denise and I had a couple of personal ties that compelled us to attend. Both of us have been beta testers for the PREDICT database that is being built by Vanderbilt to use genetic testing to forecast the response a given patient will have to a given drug. So far we have only been given the results (part reproduced below) of how our genes predict how we will react to two widely prescribed drugs--Plavix and Simvastatin:  

Clopidogrel (sounds like "kloh-PID-oh-grel") is a blood thinner used to prevent clots that can cause a heart attack or stroke. Your genes can affect how well the drug works. This genetic test identifies how well you may respond to clopidogrel. Clopidogrel is a blood thinner (brand name Plavix). When the cells in your blood stick together, you can form a harmful clot or have a stroke. Clopidogrel is used to help prevent blood clots from developing, for example, for people who have had a recent heart attack or stroke. However, clopidogrel does not prevent harmful clots or strokes the same for all people.    

Simvastatin (sounds like "sim-va-stat-in") is a medication that lowers fatty substances in the blood (brand name Zocor).

Examples of fatty substances are cholesterol and triglycerides. Simvastatin lowers the levels of LDL cholesterol ("bad cholesterol"). At the same time, simvastatin raises HDL cholesterol ("good cholesterol"). Although rare, people sometimes have a bad reaction to the drug. Your genes can affect your risk for bad reactions to the drug. This genetic test identifies your risk for a bad reaction to simvastatin.

My results from the PREDICT test indicate that I will process both of these drugs normally. My wife, Denise is red-flagged on both of them:

In some patients, simvastatin may cause muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness. Your doctor, often with the results of a lab test, can determine if your simvastatin medication is the cause of these symptoms.

The results of your test show that you have one version of the gene that may put you at increased risk for this negative outcome.

These results were not unexpected as we have similar results from 23andMe. However, it was somewhat reassuring to have the results replicated.  In addition Denise self discovered several years ago that statins give her severe leg cramps.


Our second personal draw to attend this lecture is that Dr. Roden is our daughter-in-law's genetic cardiologist. As she tells it, she knows him well; but he knows her better.


Vanderbilt now has linked 150,000 patient medical records with genetic information. The goal is be able to prescribe drugs that do what they are expected to do and don't make the patients sick. Although testing is being done on 184 variant genes that may predict reactions to 58 different drugs, so far associations are viewed as being reliable enough to embed them in patient records (available to patients and their doctors) for only the two types of drugs reported above. At present Vanderbilt is only one of two hospitals who make this link between patient genetic history and patient medical records. This number hospitals and genetic to medical information links should expand considerably over the next few years.

I hope you will want to watch this presentation excellent.

 “Genomes, Hype, and a Realistic Pathway to Personalized Medicine”

 

NOVA | Cracking Your Genetic Code

Are you ready for the era of personalized, genomic based medicine? Watch Nova on PBS on Wednesday, March 28th. You can view a short preview now:


NOVA | Cracking Your Genetic Code

Genome Sequencing's Affordable, and Frightful, Future - Businessweek

Will you be able to sequence your entire genome for less than $1,000 by 2017? Many experts believe this is realistic. The story linked below previews what we will find out when this becomes reality.

Genome Sequencing's Affordable, and Frightful, Future - Businessweek


New genetic discoveries are being made every week. Those discoveries will continue and the pace will accelerate. The appropriate use of this genetic information will become an increasingly important issue.

1. Will medical professionals be retrained to understand and use this information in personal treatment plans which will become possible when we know our personal disease risks and our personal reactions to specific drugs?

2. Who will have the right to request these tests?

3. Who will have access to the resulting information?

4. Who will store and possibly profit from the rapid growth of warehousing of genetic materials?

5. Who will benefit from the vast amount of intellectual property emerging from the digital databases built from individual genetic data?

The next couple of decades will be fascinating as our society wrestles with these and related questions.

Genetic testing in the United States may be hurt by the FDA’s confusing policies. - Slate Magazine

The linked article from Slate Magazine describes an issue that has the power to revolutionize our health care in the next decade. However, as the author describes, paternalistic views of the FDA and the medical profession may delay or dilute the develop personalized genomic medicine. We need to demand access to and control of the information about our bodies that is detailed in our DNA:

Genetic testing in the United States may be hurt by the FDA’s confusing policies. - Slate Magazine 

Many Genes Associated With More Than One Disease

Grace Rattue reported on Monday in Medical News Today,

"According to investigators at the University of Edinburgh, individuals who carry specific genes, including some accountable for Parkinson's disease, some cancers and heart disease, may be at risk of developing other health problems. Although researchers have long suspected that different diseases are genetically associated, to date there has been insufficient systematic evidence to prove it. The study is published online in the American Journal of Human Genetics."

In that article the investigators state, 

"Showing that genes are linked to more than one disease is very important. We have shown that this is a common finding and not just an exception. Anyone who goes for genetic testing should be aware that in future, any information they receive about individual genes could have wider implications than they or the clinician immediately realize. They could also influence the risk of other conditions, so being aware of these wider effects is important."

For more information on this phenomena read Many Genes Associated With More Than One Disease.