We found a cure for diabetes
Scott Adams posted on his daily Dilbert blog about how just once he wants to read a headline "We found a cure for diabetes".
If only it were that simple.
I attended a seminar today about how the hunt goes in finding the genetic cause for type 2 diabetes is going. The best they've been able to find is a gene that when expressed in homozygous form is responsbile for having the patients BMI increase 2.1 units.
Most overweight diabetic people have a BMI much bigger than that!
And they really didn't go into gene linkages too much. It would have been too much for a seminar.
"So the search continues" is the take home message. They started with a 116,000 gene spread, and are going to widen the search to 1,000,000 genes. It helps that they have access to the Pima Indians with a more homogenous gene pool (polite way to say inbred) with a high rate of type 2 diabetes. They can compare those genes with non-diabetic Pima Indians and the "everyone else" population.
I'm still amazed when I try to comprehend how all these different parts work together in such a way to make us who we are and how most of us work without any problems. Then, you get the people like me that have something get screwed up causing problems such as mine. If it's the evolution of simple amino acids, it sure took a long time to get it right.
Does such logic imply "intelligent design?" I haven't had enough to drink to say one way or another.
If only it were that simple.
I attended a seminar today about how the hunt goes in finding the genetic cause for type 2 diabetes is going. The best they've been able to find is a gene that when expressed in homozygous form is responsbile for having the patients BMI increase 2.1 units.
Most overweight diabetic people have a BMI much bigger than that!
And they really didn't go into gene linkages too much. It would have been too much for a seminar.
"So the search continues" is the take home message. They started with a 116,000 gene spread, and are going to widen the search to 1,000,000 genes. It helps that they have access to the Pima Indians with a more homogenous gene pool (polite way to say inbred) with a high rate of type 2 diabetes. They can compare those genes with non-diabetic Pima Indians and the "everyone else" population.
I'm still amazed when I try to comprehend how all these different parts work together in such a way to make us who we are and how most of us work without any problems. Then, you get the people like me that have something get screwed up causing problems such as mine. If it's the evolution of simple amino acids, it sure took a long time to get it right.
Does such logic imply "intelligent design?" I haven't had enough to drink to say one way or another.
Labels: lab work, life stuff
posted by Jenn @ 21:29
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