This Week in Nature Journal

Hey ANTH420,

In this week's issue of Nature weekly journal there are two pieces related to genomics.  Not highly applicable to non-human primates necessarily, but still pretty interesting in terms of the broader implications of genomics.


First is an editorial that approaches the ethics of genome sequencing in individuals.  This piece raises the privacy issues that occur when this practice is used on humans and then published in public databases.  Here's the link:

http://www.nature.com/news/genetic-privacy-1.12238


Second piece is a "Research Highlight" that features 2 genomics studies that found a gene linked to Alzheimer's.  A study performed on 2000+ Icelanders uncovered a mutation in the TREM2 gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer's threefold.  It is suggested that the mutation regulates immune cells in the brain that would normally engulf the cell debris and plaques that are the hallmarks of this disease.  Link here:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v493/n7433/full/493454d.html