Scientist Find Possible Alzheimer’s Gene

There are scientists that have found a gene that might raise the chances of getting the most common kind of Alzheimer’s disease by 45 percent in people who inherit a certain form of the disease. The gene affects a brain cell’s ability to take in calcium. Hopefully, drugs can be made to fight this effect. Most people are over the age of 65 that are affected by the disease.

Only one gene, called CALHM1, has been found to affect the risks associated with people over the age of 65. There are many other genes that are being studied as having the possibility to affect the disease.

Scientists Make First Genetically Modified Embryo

For the first time, scientists have been able to genetically alter a human embryo. Researchers used an abnormal embryo that could never have developed into a baby to do the project.

The project raises the possibilities that people could be able to create designer babies in the future and scientists could insert certain genes into an embryo to produce babies with certain characteristics, such as higher intelligence and better athletic abilities. Some people think that this is wrong and turns children into designed objects and would create an unequal society where some people would be considered genetically superior while other people who are born without genetic injections would be inferior.

Scientists say that the main point of the project was to find out if a gene injected into an abnormal embryo could be traced in stem cells that are harvested from the embryo. The work could also explain why abnormal embryos don’t develop. Scientists found that abnormal embryos don’t develop well enough to produce stem cells.

Weight Gain Genes

It is found that overeating is related to the same gene involved in alcoholism and drug addiction. People who carried a certain variant of the gene and who used food to motivate themselves were the highest at risk for eating too many snacks when compared to people who had only one or neither of these traits. People with this gene variant could have a lack in reward-signaling in the brain and have to participate in more of the behavior to get as much pleasure as people with normal signaling. Exercising is something more positive that can release the same reward chemicals in the brain.

Germs Taken to Space Come Back Stronger and Deadlier

The germ Salmonella was put on a space shuttle and sent into space because scientists wanted to see how space travel has an affect on germs. Researchers found that 167 genes had changed in the salmonella that went into space. They say that the germs change genetically because they sensed that they were in new environment. When they fed mice the germs from space they were three times more likely to get sick and die than the mice that were fed germs that didn’t go into space.