http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. People who identify as African-American may be as little as 1 percent West African or as much as 99 percent, just one finding of a large-scale, genome-wide study of African and African-American ancestry released today. http://www.physorg.com/news180632039.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:40:30 EST news180632039 The most widely used human embryonic stem cell lines lack genetic diversity, a finding that raises social justice questions that must be addressed to ensure that all sectors of society benefit from stem cell advances, according to a University of Michigan research team. http://www.physorg.com/news180206563.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:23:43 EST news180206563 People preferentially marry those with similar ancestry, but their decisions are not necessarily based on hair, eye or skin colour. Research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology, shows that Mexicans mate according to proportions of Native American to European ancestry, while Puerto Ricans are more likely to settle down with someone carrying a similar mix of African and European genes. http://www.physorg.com/news177917997.html Biology Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:40:44 EST news177917997 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study compares personal perceptions of race, color and ancestry of Brazilian high school students with the results of genetic ancestry tests, with the aim of investigating the tensions between cultural and scientific conceptions of race. The research, led by Ricardo Ventura Santos of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Oswaldo Cruz foundation, appears in the December issue of Current Anthropology. http://www.physorg.com/news177701341.html Biology Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:30:07 EST news177701341 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Australia have identified a single gene that strongly influences whether you have curly or straight hair. http://www.physorg.com/news177063334.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:16:43 EST news177063334 When it comes to health disparities between different groups, how society sees people in terms of race might play a greater role than genetics, according to a new University of Florida study. http://www.physorg.com/news171700657.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:10:01 EST news171700657 A third of the previously identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, associated with prostate cancer in men of European or African ancestry were also associated with prostate cancer in a Japanese population, according to a new study published online September 2 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news171136383.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:30:01 EST news171136383 Central Asian ethnic groups are more defined by societal rules than ancestry. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Genetics found that overall there are more genetic differences within ethnic groups than between them, indicating that separate 'ethnic groups' exist in the mind more than the blood. http://www.physorg.com/news170964875.html Medicine & Health Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:14:59 EST news170964875 From the start of the HIV epidemic, it appeared that some of the people who were infected with the virus were able to ward off the fatal effects of the disease longer than others. Recent studies have begun to unravel the cause of this phenomenon, and new research suggests that African Americans with the disease have a unique survival advantage if they have both a low white blood cell count (known as leukopenia) and a genetic variation that is found mainly in persons of African ancestry. This study was prepublished online on July 20, 2009, in Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology. http://www.physorg.com/news167327532.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:30:01 EST news167327532 A young US start-up brimming with medical research veterans brings genetic testing to the masses on Wednesday with an affordable, comprehensive DNA service for the public. http://www.physorg.com/news166875256.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:14:55 EST news166875256 (PhysOrg.com) -- As the popularity of take-home DNA kits to trace ancestry or calculate the risk for serious medical conditions grows, there is an increasingly critical need for federal oversight of "direct-to consumer" genetic testing, as well as of the use of DNA samples for research, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and several other academic institutions. http://www.physorg.com/news165763092.html Medicine & Health Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:19:29 EST news165763092 (AP) -- The detailed new look yet at the genetics of Mexicans is showing significant diversity, a finding that could help point the way to customized drugs and identification of people prone to certain diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news161281404.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 May 2009 17:23:50 EST news161281404 (PhysOrg.com) -- A large-scale effort to identify genetic markers of breast cancer has uncovered two common genetic variants that increase risk of the disease in women of European ancestry. http://www.physorg.com/news157640958.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:09:39 EST news157640958 Say goodbye to Italian-Americans and German-Americans and say hello to Vietnamese-Americans, Salvadoran-Americans and a bunch of other hyphenated Americans. http://www.physorg.com/news157293735.html Other Sciences Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:42:45 EST news157293735 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new dating method has found that "Peking Man" is around 200,000 years older than previously thought, suggesting he somehow adapted to the cold of a mild glacial period. http://www.physorg.com/news156001133.html Other Sciences Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:39:52 EST news156001133 The amount of proteins produced in cells -a fundamental determinant of biological outcomes collectively known as gene expression -varies in African American individuals depending on their proportion of African or European genetic ancestry. These findings, by researchers based in Boston, Philadelphia and Oxford, are published December 5 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics. http://www.physorg.com/news147698095.html Biology Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:14:55 EST news147698095 Latina women have a lower risk of breast cancer than European or African-American women generally, but those with higher European ancestry could be at increased risk, according to data published in the December 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. http://www.physorg.com/news147337377.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:02:57 EST news147337377 An international team of researchers has identified just 200 positions within the curves of the DNA helix that they believe capture much of the genetic diversity in European Americans, a population with one of the most diverse and complex historic origins on Earth. Their findings narrow the search for the elusive ancestral clues known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, that cause disease and account for the minute variations in the European American population. http://www.physorg.com/news137324713.html Medicine & Health Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:45:13 EST news137324713