There is an allure to making the invisible visible, especially when it is about us. We carry many things around with us every day, beneath the surface: stories, histories, thoughts, and beliefs. Our bodies also carry around a total of several trillion copies of our genome, two per cell and these, too, remain invisible to Read More…
Year: 2015
Interdisciplinarity: Mixing it up
I introduced myself earlier as a graduate student in Public Health Genetics, an interdisciplinary program. But what exactly is “interdisciplinary?” It’s a nice-sounding word that gets thrown around a lot, but can be tough to define — sort of like “zumba.” (Ethnic dance style fusion? Funky line dancing?) So I’m going to take this post Read More…
Over-the-Counter Genetics
Genetic testing has been around for decades. Early examples include state-run newborn screening programs, the first of which was for the metabolic disorder phenylketonuria (PKU). Whether you know it or not, in the first few hours of your life a little heel prick of blood was taken from you and tested for probably a dozen Read More…
Big Data, Big Deal (?)
Quick free association exercise: I say “big data” and you think…maybe, Google? NSA? The bane of my existence? The promise of tomorrow? I have a little bit of all of the above. But firstly I think of big genetic data, which is all the rage in biomedical research. Big data in genetics has come about Read More…
Blue-eyed girl
The early days I’m not sure I would be in the field of genetics if I didn’t have blue eyes. I remember my first introduction to genetics, in my 7th grade “life sciences” class, which is just biology for middle schoolers. We were learning about Mendel, his peas, and the laws of genetic inheritance. One way Read More…