News in a nutshell
| 10 January, 2011 | Adie Chan |
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This week’s news includes evidence that the autism-vaccine linking research was fraudulent, survey results showing that consumers will pay good money for diagnostic genetic tests, a new study in the field of synthetic biology, an analysis of the genetic abnormalities in stem cell lines, the winners of the UK’s New Years Honours, and a genetic test for hair color.
Vaccine-autism link research deemed fraudulent
A controversial study linking childhood vaccines to autism was a sham, according to an investigative journalist from the BMJ who spent several years looking into the research and its findings. Journalist Brian Deer provides “clear evidence of falsification of data” in the paper, published in the Lancet in 1998 and retracted last year, according to an editorial that ran in the BMJ last week. In particular, Deer reported that the authors of the study downplayed the pre-vaccine autism symptoms of some of the 12 children involved in the research.
People willing to pay top dollar for genetic tests
Consumers would gladly pay hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket for the results of genetic tests that would inform them of the likelihood of contracting diseases like arthritis, cancer, and Alzheimer’s, according to a new study published last week in Health Economics. Of the almost 1500 people who answered the web-based survey, about 76 percent said they’d take such tests, and would pay $300-$600 to know the results. “This study brings us a step closer to understanding people’s preferences and motivations for wanting a diagnostic test, even if it has no bearing on subsequent medical treatment,” lead author Peter Neumann of the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center said in a statement.
Synthetic proteins support life
Princeton University scientists constructed several artificial proteins that could sustain growth in living cells. Drawing on a library of about 1 million de novo amino acid sequences, the team inserted the sequences into 27 different knockout strains of E. coli and found that four of these mutant strains were rescued by about 15 proteins in the library. The research, published in last week’s issue of PLoS, demonstrates the ability of man-made proteins to sustain cellular growth, but may stoke the ethical fears surrounding synthetic biology.
Genetic abnormalities plague stem cell lines
Both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines have more genetic abnormalities than do other cells, according to researchers from the University of California, San Diego and the Scripps Research Institute. Embryonic stem cells tended to have duplications in the genome while iPS stem cells had more deletions, according to the paper published in Cell Stem Cell last week. Both of these abnormalities can push cells towards becoming cancerous, thereby limiting their suitability as therapeutic agents.
Scientists honored in New Year’s list
Several researchers were recognized in the United Kingdom’s annual New Year’s Honours, which bestow symbolic titles upon deserving individuals as determined by the Queen. University of Cambridge biotechnology professor Christopher Lowe, and Carol Turley, research scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, were named Officers of the British Empire for their service to science. The Queen dubbed Cambridge biologist Ronald Laskey, Southampton University immunologist Stephen Holgate, and Oxford entomologist Hugh Godfray Commanders of the British Empire. See the full list of honorees here.
Hair color encoded in DNA
Perhaps blondness does run deep. Researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, reported in Human Genetics last week that they could predict subtly different shades of hair color based on a person’s DNA, a possibly valuable advancement for criminal forensic investigations.
Related stories:
[January 2011]
[23rd October 2009]
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Nothing has been debunked with regard to autism and vaccines. Brian Deer is too close to the witch hunt of Dr. Wakefield to write anything remotely accurate. He is the one who brought the original complaint to the GMC. Does he have a child with autism and /or gut disease?/ NO. Did any of the 12 parents in Dr. Wakefield’s case paper complain? NO. In fact, the parents offered to testify on behalf of Dr. Wakefield and Dr. Walker-Smith, but were denied by their own government. There have been five studies around the world that have been well designed, and each supported Dr. Wakefield’s findings of vaccine strain measles virus persisting in the guts of autistic children long after the immune system should have eradicated the virus. This editorial was paid for by a London newspaper and a London TV station. Both of those monetary sources have strong financial ties to pharmaceutical giants like Merck and GSK., maufacturers of vaccines.
Secondly, Dr. Wakefield NEVER claimed that the MMR CAUSES autism, only that there appeared to be a connection of some sort between persistant vaccine stain measles virus in the diseased guts of autistic children. Read the case paper. Also, Dr. Wakefield, to this day, is not anti-vaccine, nor did he ever recommend not vaccinating.
Please tell both sides of the story instead of using sensational headlines.
I enjoy reading the summations of current interests/reports in the scientific media and literature.
S.L.
I find it interesting that so many “professional” media outlets trumpet the “fraud” alleged to have been committed by Wakefield, considering the entire story was engineered by Deer, who then reported upon it for profit. That in itself represents journalistic fraud.
And let us not forget Poling and Banks, both of whome were found by the US govt. to have had their autism dirctly triggered by the vaccines they received…
Unfortunately neither the withdrawal of Dr. Wakefield’s paper nor the report of fraud in the findings will quell the misinformation spread by the conspiracists who continue to believe in the vaccine/autism link despite the accumulating evidence against. And in the meantime, outbreaks of devastating diseases that had nearly been eradicated in the West are becoming more common. Only last week I listened to a caller to NPR Science Friday blithely state that it was only “logical” that vaccinating her child would cause a damaging assault to his immue system. On the converse, I can only assume that she rejects relativity, quantum mechanics, and the germ theory of disease because of their illogicality. Oh, we can only lament the poor state of science education…
I agree with Laura and Dad Fourkids, where can I find more info on Poling and Banks?
If you want more evidence that facts contradicting faith don’t change faith, but rather reinforce that faith, read Laura Cox’s and Dad Fourkids’ posts. These are pretty much typical of what has been posted in the internet on articles that show Wakefield was unethical in his reporting.
And they need to be very careful when ascribing greed to Mr. Deer considering that Wakefield has made hundreds of thousands of dollars testifying in court that vaccines cause autism, despite Cox’s claim that Wakefield never tried to link the two.
how does one bad investigation prove the link does not exist?
GreAT new books to read:
1.Callous Disregard-Dr. Andrew Wakefield
2. The Age of Autism-Mercury, medicine and A Manmade Epidemic.
3 Vaccine Epidemic-Louise Habakus and mary Holland
google Banks and Poling. The families wanted all the records opened-gov’t refused out of fear of what people would see.
Maurine meleck SC
You’re in for it now. Antivax Yahoo groups have picked up the link to your round-up in google sweeps for Wakefield news (this isn’t speculation. I found the links directing them here). Apparently no negative portrayal of Wakefield, no matter how incidental and by-the-way, is beneath their notice. I see the comment-bombing has already begun. *eyeroll*
I wondered where it was coming from. Thanks for the heads-up; we’ll pass round the flak jackets.
A commenter called ‘joe’ comment-bombed this thread.
He has just tried to comment again, saying
“You did not allow my post ,what to much truth for you to handle. I will repost them
again…..”
There were over 1,500 words of comment, and a lot of those were quotes. To spare our readers, we’re not approving them.
Thank God for our freedom of speech and thank you Bob Grant for this article, you have proven again how people will deal with information. This demonstrates the root cause of why we don’t get root cause answers.