Genetic Twists of Fate

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  • Additional Information
    • Resource Type: eBook.
    • Description: How tiny variations in our personal DNA can determine how we look, how we behave, how we get sick, and how we get well.News stories report almost daily on the remarkable progress scientists are making in unraveling the genetic basis of disease and behavior. Meanwhile, new technologies are rapidly reducing the cost of reading someone's personal DNA (all six billion letters of it). Within the next ten years, hospitals may present parents with their newborn's complete DNA code along with her footprints and APGAR score. In Genetic Twists of Fate, distinguished geneticists Stanley Fields and Mark Johnston help us make sense of the genetic revolution that is upon us.Fields and Johnston tell real life stories that hinge on the inheritance of one tiny change rather than another in an individual's DNA: a mother wrongly accused of poisoning her young son when the true killer was a genetic disorder; the screen siren who could no longer remember her lines because of Alzheimer's disease; and the president who was treated with rat poison to prevent another heart attack. In an engaging and accessible style, Fields and Johnston explain what our personal DNA code is, how a few differences in its long list of DNA letters makes each of us unique, and how that code influences our appearance, our behavior, and our risk for such common diseases as diabetes or cancer.
    • Subjects: Human genetics--Popular works; Medical genetics--Popular works
    • Categories: SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Genetics & Genomics; MEDICAL / Genetics
    • Related ISBNs: 9780262014700. 9780262518642. 9780262289382.
    • OCLC: 698105684
    • Accession Number: 324665
    • Publisher Permissions: Print/Save 30 pages
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Reviews

LJ Reviews 2010 October #1

The sequencing of the human genome has led to research that sometimes suggests that the cure for a disease is imminent because the gene that causes it has been found. The reality is not quite that simple, so it is good that this new book geared to the general public takes a realistic look at what we know about genetics and how it relates to medicine. Fields (genome sciences and medicine, Univ. of Washington) and Johnston (chair of biochemistry and molecular genetics, Univ. of Colorado School of Medicine) have written an engaging text that uses case studies and stories of famous people to illustrate genetic principles and progress in treating diseases such as diabetes, phenylketonuria, Huntington's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's), and Alzheimer's. The ethics of how we use genetic knowledge is also considered. VERDICT Recommended for public and university libraries with consumer health collections and readers looking for straight information.—Margaret Henderson, Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Lib., Richmond

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