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UCLA Human Genetics News 2011

Dr. James A. Lake, distinguished professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology and Human Genetics, has been selected as one of the six UCLA professors (among 220 distinguished scholars, scientists, authors, artists, and business and philanthropic leaders) elected today to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments.
More information can be found in this UCLA Newsroom article:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/6-ucla-professors-elected-to-american-232149.aspx

Congratulations to Dr. Marc Suchard who has been selected as the 2011 recipient of the Carroll Young Investigator Award for his wide-ranging and influential contributions to computational statistics, Bayesian modeling and computing, evolutionary medicine and biology. Dr. Suchard is a Professor in Biostatistics, Biomathematics, and Human Genetics.
More information about this award can be found here:
http://www.stat.tamu.edu/files/CarrollYIprog11.pdf

Dr. Stephen Young has been selected to give the George Lyman Duff Memorial Lecture at the National American Heart Association meeting this year. This award is among the most longstanding and prestigious of the AHA awards, having been established in 1956 to commemorate Dr. Duff, a founding member and past president of the original society. Dr. Young's lecture is on "GPIHBP1, the Endothelial Cell Transporter for Lipoprotein Lipase".

Dr. Dan Geschwind, the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Chair in Human Genetics and distinguished autism researcher, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) at the Academy of Natural Sciences. This election is in recognition of his major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care and public health. More information about this honor can be found in this Autism Science Foundation article:
http://autismsciencefoundation.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/dr-dan-geschwind-elected-to-institute-of-medicine

UCLA scientists have created a mouse model for autism that opens a window into the biological mechanisms that underlie the disease. The researchers found that autistic mice share similar symptoms and behaviors with people on the autism spectrum, suggesting that mouse brains and human brains are wired surprisingly alike. If so, the model offers a promising way to test new therapies that may one day help people with autism. The study is published in the Sept. 30 edition of the journal Cell. More information can be found in this UCLA Newsroom article:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-geneticists-develop-promising-216302.aspx

Professor Esteban Dell'Angelica has been selected to receive the Eugen Weber Honors Collegium Teaching Award. Each year, this award is given to an Honors Faculty member who has shown special dedication to interdisciplinary education and Honors students. Professor Dell'Angelica often teaches in the Honors Collegium in the College of Letters and Science, and he also serves on the Honors Faculty Advisory Committee. The award will be presented to Professor Dell'Angelica at the Gilbert Honors Programs Spring Tea.

Congratulations to James Lake, UCLA Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology and Human Genetics, who was awarded the Darwin Wallace Medal for major research advances in evolutionary biology. He received the award on May 24 at the anniversary meeting of the Linnean Society of London.
More information about Professor Lake's recognition can be found in this UCLA Today article:
http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/james-lake-awarded-prestigious-darwin-wallace-medal.aspx

UCLA Human Genetics News 2010

In a recent LA Times edition, Stan Nelson, Professor In Residence & Co-Vice Chair of the Department of Human Genetics, and his wife Carrie Miceli, Faculty in Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics, are featured in a very touching article about their personal fight against a lethal childhood illness. The article discusses Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most common of childhood's lethal DNA-linked diseases. Their own son's diagnosis with Duchenne has led them to take new approaches in their scientific research toward finding treatment. They are opening a clinic this year for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a disease that affects 1 in every 3,500 boys - including the couple's 9-year-old son Dylan.
The May 2, 2010 article is available:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-dystrophy-20100503,0,5907688,full.story

Dr. Stephen Young will be awarded the 2010 Ernst Jung Medical Award in a ceremony in Hamburg, Germany, this May.

"The Ernst Jung Medical Award 2010, initiated in 1967 by the Hamburg merchant and ship owner Ernst Jung and awarded since 1976, is awarded for pioneering research in medicine. As one of the highest European research awards endowed with Euro 300,000, the prize goes (Euro 150.000 awarded to each person) to Prof. Stephen G. Young MD (Departments of Medicine and Human Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles) and Prof. Peter Carmeliet MD PhD (Vesalius Research Center, University of Leuven/Belgium).

Stephen G. Young receives the award in recognition of his pioneering research on the mechanisms of lipid metabolism, in particular the elucidation of genetic defects in apolipoproteins, triglyceride transport mechanisms, and the role of farnesylated prelamin A in progeria, whereas Peter Carmeliet is receives the award in recognition of his ground breaking work in genetically modified models of cardiovascular disease and thrombosis.

Past recipients of the Ernst Jung Medical Award have included Drs. Anthony S. Fauci, David D. Ho, Francis V. Chisari, Judah Folkman, and Stuart A. Lipton."

UCLA Human Genetics News 2009

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Journal of Lipid Research, Professor Karen Reue was selected as the "JLR Lecturer" for the 2009 Gordon Conference on Molecular and Cellular Biology of Lipids. The North American Vascular Biology Organization presented the 2009 Earl P. Benditt Award to Professor Jake Lusis. This award honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the understanding of vascular biology or pathology. Congratulations to Dr. Reue and Dr. Lusis!

Steve Horvath and Chiara Sabatti were recently promoted to the rank of Professor and Eleazar Eskin to Associate Professor. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Eleazar Eskin, UCLA Human Genetics and Computer Science Departments, who has received a 2009 Sloan Research Fellowship Award. Dr. Eskin will continue research on the development of methods for discovering the genetic basis of complex traits using inbred strains. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supports promising researchers early in their academic careers. Since 1955, 38 Sloan Research Fellows have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in their fields and 14 have received the Fields Medal, the top honor in mathematics.

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation awarded Eric Vilain, Professor of Human Genetics, Pediatrics and Urology, a 2008 Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award. Dr. Vilain, one of six scientists to receive the prestigious award, will receive $1.5 million over five to seven years to research disorders of sexual development. The Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award recognizes outstanding leadership in clinical research and enables leading physician-scientists to continue bridging the crucial gap between biomedical research and clinical applications that improve human health.

UCLA Human Genetics News 2008

In honor of the 10th anniversary of the Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, the Department of Human Genetics, the Department of Pediatrics, and the UCLA Brain Research Institute sponsored an all day symposium "Progress in Understanding Genetic Diseases" on September 26, 2008. Talks were given by Edward R.B. McCabe, Katrina Dipple, Eric Vilain, Stanley Nelson, Daniel Geschwind, Ming Guo, Karen Reue and Paivi Pajukanta. A special luncheon honoring the Gonda family featured a presentation by Linda Liau.

Congratulations to Guoping Fan who has been appointed to a three-year term as the Carol Moss Spivak Scholar in Neuroscience.

Katrina Dipple and Marc Suchard were recently promoted to the rank of Associate Professor and Linda McCabe to Adjunct Professor. Congratulations!

Marc Suchard has received a Research Gift from Microsoft Corporation to support his research in computational statistics. Dr. Suchard is Assistant Professor of Biomathematics, Biostatistics and Human Genetics. Congratulations!

The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg's Faculty of health sciences board, will award an Honorary Doctorate to Stephen G. Young on October 24, 2008. The academy's press release states, "Stephen G. Young has been appointed honorary doctor in Medicine for his exemplary dedication to doing research and training younger co-workers. His outstanding talents in communication and analysis are a source of inspiration to his colleagues at the Sahlgrenska Academy, and he has generously shared his expertise with others." Dr. Young, Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics, is well known for his research in the development of animal models to study disease. The full article is available at: http://www.sahlgrenska.gu.se/english/news_and_events/news/News_Detail/?contentId=805186&languageId=100001&disableRedirect

Congratulations to Marc Suchard, Assistant Professor of Human Genetics and Biomathematics, who is one of six UCLA faculty to receive a 2008 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Guggenheim fellows are appointed on the basis of impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. Since 1925 the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has annually offered Fellowships to artists, scholars, and scientists in all fields. Article appears in UCLA Today Online, April 8, 2008 http://today.ucla.edu/news/080408_guggenheim_2008/

Dr. Edward McCabe, Professor of Pediatrics, Human Genetics and Bioengineering, Mattel Executive Endowed Chair of Pediatrics, Physician-in-Chief, Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, and co-director of UCLA Center for Society and Genetics, has been elected to serve as President of the American Society of Human Genetics in 2009. DNA: Promise and Peril, co-authored by Dr. McCabe and Dr. Linda McCabe, Adjunct Professor of Human Genetics and Pediatrics, has been published by University of California Press. Edward McCabe and Linda McCabe each received UCLA's 2007 Dean Eugene Weber Honors Collegium Distinguished Teaching Award. Congratulations!

Steve Horvath, Associate Professor of Human Genetics and Biostatistics, was elected to the "Hot 100" author list at BioMed Central in 2007. This list includes authors who have played a key role over the last two years, in supporting BioMed Central's open access journals, both by publishing research articles and by acting as peer reviewers.

Guoping Fan, Associate Professor of Human Genetics and a researcher with the Eli and Eydthe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, is senior corresponding author of a recently published article in Cell Stem Cell, February 7, 2008. The study demonstrates that DNA methylation is a unique regulator in parallel to many other important gene regulation mechanisms in controlling gene expression in undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem cells. A large scale mapping of DNA methylation in embryonic stem cells will pave the way for programming mouse and human embryonic stem cells into specific cells in adult tissues and organs by controlling the DNA methylation patterns. Authors include Shaun Fouse and Yin Shen, graduate students in the UCLA Department of Human Genetics.

The article is available at:
http://www.cellstemcell.com/content/article/abstract?uid=PIIS193459090700327X

The FDA has recently approved the use of a new drug Kuran to treat patients with the rare genetic disorder phenylketonuria. The disease is caused by a deficiency of an enzyme which breaks down phenylalanine, an amino acid in food. Without the enzyme, the levels of the amino acid build up, causing damage. In an interview with The New York Times, Stephen Cederbaum, Professor of Human Genetics, and advisor to the drug company BioMarin Pharmaceutical, said this new treatment "will be life-changing for some patients." The drug will allow patients to eat and enjoy foods that have been restricted to them because of their condition.

Kuvan is the trade name for tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), the natural co-factor for phenylalanine hydroxylase (PHA), the enzyme that is deficient in phenylketonuria (PKU) one of the most common inborn errors of metabolism. Patients with PKU have been treated with a phenylalanine-restricted diet for many years and develop with normal intelligence.

For many years we have known of patients who had elevated levels of blood phenylalanine, normal levels of PHA, but who were deficient in BH4 because of having inherited an inability to carry out one of the steps in the BH4 generating machinery of the body. More recently it was discovered that certain patients with normal levels of BH4 and having PKU, had mutations whose protein products were stabilized by BH4 acting primarily as a molecular chaperone. This minority of PKU patients are candidates for BH4 therapy either alone or along with the very effective dietary therapy that has been available for nearly 50 years.

It is likely, but not yet proven, that patients with PKU whose levels of phenylalanine are controlled with BH4 will develop as well as those treated by diet. Longitudinal studies will demonstrate whether or not this is in fact the case.

The Dec. 14, 2007 article is available:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/health/14genetic.html?_r=2&ref=health&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

UCLA Human Genetics News 2007

Eleazar Eskin, Assistant Professor of Human Genetics and Computer Science, and student Hyun Min Kang were two of the collaborators on the "Mouse Genome Resequencing and SNP Discovery Project" which appeared in the Advance Online Publication section of Nature, July 29, 2007. The extensive study, a mouse haplotype map of 15 mouse strains, will be a dynamic tool for researchers in studying susceptibility factors to environmental disease. The report was conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and Perlegen Sciences, Inc. of Mountain View California.

NIH press release:
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/jul2007/niehs-29.htm

Esteban Dell'Angelica, Guoping Fan, and Paivi Pajukanta were recently promoted to the rank of Associate Professor and Jeanette Papp to Adjunct Associate Professor. Janet Sinsheimer and Eric Vilain have been promoted to the rank of Professor and Rita Cantor to Professor in Residence.

Congratulations to Marc Suchard, Assistant Professor of Human Genetics and Biomathematics, who has received a prestigious 2007 Sloan Research Fellowship Award. This award is given annually to promising young researchers in the fields of chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics. Dr. Suchard will continue his research in statistical phylogenetics and development of novel methods to understand infectious diseases.

Guoping Fan, assistant professor of Human Genetics, was recently awarded one of two grants, which total more than $5 million dollars, from the state of California to the UCLA Institute of Cell Biology and Medicine. Dr. Fan will study neural cell repair; "We hope our study will pave the way for the future use of human embryonic stem cell-derived nerve cells in the clinical treatment of nerve injury and neurodegenerative diseases such as stroke and Parkinson's disease." Owen Witte, Director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA commented, "These grants are given to scientists with a record of accomplishment in stem cell research, and I'm proud to have two ISCBM researchers among the grant winners, which represent the top scientists in California." Jerome Zack, associate director of the UCLA AIDS Institute, received the second grant to study therapeutic strategies targeting HIV.

The online Brain Tumor Research Portal elected "Analysis of Oncogenic Signaling Networks in Glioblastoma Identifies ASPM as a Novel Molecular Target," as the second most influential brain tumor publication in the year 2006. This collaboration included UCLA Department of Human Genetics members Steve Horvath, Bin Zhang, Marc Carlson, Kan Lu, Shaojun Zhu, Wei Zhao, Qiping Shu, Zugen Chen, Yohan Lee, Daniel Geschwind, and Stanley Nelson; authors also included UCLA's Paul Mischel, Linda Liau, Hong Wu, Phillipp Febbo, Harley Kornblum, Timothy Cloughesy and non-UCLA collaborators Ramon Felciano, Megan Laurance, Adrienne Scheck. Glioblastoma is the most common primary malignant brain tumor of adults and one of the most lethal of all cancers. Patients with this disease have a median survival of 15 months from the time of diagnosis despite surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. New treatment approaches and molecular targets are urgently sought. In this study, the UCLA team used a novel systems biologic analysis method (weighted gene co-expression network analysis, WGCNA) to identify several molecular targets. One of the most promising targets was the ASPM (abnormal spindle-like microcephaly associated) gene. ASPM inhibition by siRNA-mediated knockdown was shown to inhibit tumor cell proliferation and neural stem cell proliferation, supporting ASPM as a potential molecular target in glioblastoma.

Full text of the article is available at:
http://www.ionchannels.org/newsletters/braintumour-2006-lit.html
http://www.braintumour.net/showabstract.php?pmid=17090670&source=newsletter

UCLA Human Genetics professors Daniel Geschwind, Rita Cantor, and Stanley Nelson, participated in the Autism Genome Project, a large international consortium, coordinated by Autism Speaks, which identified two possible genetic links to autism. Daniel Geschwind, chief scientific adviser of the Autism Genetic Research Exchange, the most extensive pool of genetic data for the study of autism, commented, "We meet, combine samples, and do joint analyses. It's large studies like this that are going to help us understand what the genetic architecture and landscape of autism is." On Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Rita Cantor commented, "It's unprecedented to have such a large group of families, and I think this is just a very promising beginning."

"A Powerful New Tool"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17202866/site/newsweek/
"Roots of Autism More Complex than Thought"
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/genetics/2007-02-18-autism-roots_x.htm
"Autism Genes Found"
http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=15563

Past doctoral students of Kenneth Lange, Chair of Human Genetics at UCLA, presented their recent research at the Computational Genetics Symposium, held in his honor on February 9, 2007 at UCLA. Speakers included Michael Boehnke, Professor of Biostatistics, University of Michigan; Ruzong Fan, Associate Professor of Statistics, Texas A&M University; Neil Risch, Director of the Institute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco; Laura Lazzeroni, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University; Eric Schadt, Senior Scientific Director, Rosetta Inpharmatics; David Hunter, Associate Professor of Statistics, Penn State University; Daniel Weeks, Professor of Human Genetics and Biostatistics, University of Pittsburgh; and Eric Sobel, Adjunct Professor of Human Genetics, UCLA. The symposium was coordinated by Chiara Sabatti and Janet Sinsheimer of UCLA Human Genetics.

UCLA Human Genetics News 2006

Taking autopsied brain tissue from humans and chimps, graduate student Mike Oldham and Human Genetics faculty members Dan Geschwind and Steve Horvath identified gene networks in various brain regions that work very differently in humans and chimps - especially in the brain's most highly evolved region, the cerebral cortex. Standard genetic techniques allow scientists to look at gene expression levels, which genes are activated and which are not. Scientists compare these activity levels in different species to come up with a percentage of genes shared. However, the latest technique, developed by Dr. Horvath, allows scientists to see how these genes interact in a network. Dr. Geschwind likens this approach to analyzing an airline map with cities and routes. "This method tells us which cities are most important," Geschwind says. "The standard way - identifying genes one by one - gives you a lot less information than looking at the network of genes working together in the same neighborhood." The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the study in its October 13, 2006 online edition. The article was published in Neurology Today, December 19, 2006. CBS2.com, City News Service and Xinhua News (China) also reported the findings.
"Gene Networks Uniques to Human Brains Shed Light on Evolutionary Divergence from Chimpanzees"
http://www.neurotodayonline.com/pt/re/neurotoday/abstract.00132985-200612190-00004;jsessionid=FnJFWy108QwdFqn2FLfvKbrkykR7yH1D8211hs7TnRLnTMjRXw5q!-613801044!-949856144!8091!-1
"Chimpanzee and Human Genes Studied"
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061114-123522-7429r
"UCLA Scientists Use New Method in Brain Study"
http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_317184950.html

Congratulations to Dr. David Rimoin who received the inaugural Leadership Award from the American Society of Human Genetics at the society's conference in New Orleans, on October 12, 2006. Dr. Rimoin is Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, director of the Intercampus Medical Genetics Training Program, director of the Medical Genetics Institute and holds the Steven Spielberg Chair at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Rimoin founded the American Board of Medical Genetics and the American College of Medical Genetics, which establish accreditation and certification standards for the training of medical geneticists. He is honored for his numerous contributions to the field of genetics.
"One Geneticist's Story"
http://www.today.ucla.edu/campus/socgen_history/

In the UCLA Today newsletter, October 10, 2006, Dr. Edward McCabe discusses the Oral History of Human Genetics Project launched at UCLA in 2001. Dr. McCabe is Professor of Pediatrics and Human Genetics, Physician-in-Chief, Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, and co-director of UCLA Center for Society and Genetics. The oral history website features interviews with leading geneticists and is an invaluable resource. The American Society of Human Genetics, the National Human Genome Research Initiative, and the National Science Foundation have contributed to the program's funding.
"Chronicling the Genetics Revolution"
http://www.today.ucla.edu/campus/socgen_history/
The Oral History of Human Genetics
http://www.socgen.ucla.edu/hgp/index.htm

In the New York Times Magazine, September 24, 2006, Dr. Eric Vilain, Chief of Medical Genetics at UCLA and Associate Professor of Human Genetics, Pediatrics and Urology, comments on the subject of intersex. He argues that it is not just X and Y chromosomes but many factors that determine an individual's sex.
"What If It's (Sort of) a Boy and (Sort of) a Girl?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/magazine/24intersexkids.html

Dr. Eric Vilain was quoted in the Ventura County Star, September 17, 2006, on his research in sex determination. Vilain says, "There are a number of characteristics (genitalia, hormone levels, chromosomes, genes) that are statistically more feminine or more masculine, but for one individual, none of these measures can define gender. Gender comes from within and is a self-identification."
"The World Between"
http://www1.venturacountystar.com/vcs/lifestyle/article/0,1375,VCS_230_4999133,00.html

In Neuron, September 7, 2006, UCLA colleagues, including Dr. Stanislav Karsten, Assistant Researcher of Neurology, Dr. Daniel Geschwind, Professor of Neurology and Human Genetics, and Dr. George Jackson, Professor of Neurology, report that puromycin-sensitive aminopeptidase (PSA) may be a key protective agent in the prevention of brain cell deterioration that characterizes diseases such as Alzheimer's. They used two genetic screening techniques, one based on microarray studies in the mouse and the other based on genetic screening in the fly, to identify genes that modify neurodegeneration caused by tau, which is a major component of alzheimer disease pathology. One gene they identified, the puromycin sensitive aminopeptidase, is a novel tau peptidase, analogous to the role of beta secretase in amyloid cleavage. The study presents the hope that someday drug therapies could promote this mechanism. The article was reported in many media sources including:
"Natural Protective Mechanism Against Neuronal Death in Alzheimer's Found"
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060911120210.htm
"Untangling A Pathology of Alzheimer's"
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=51355
"Paper Alert: Nipping Tau Tangles in the Bud"
http://www.alzforum.org/new/detail.asp?id=1451

Roel Ophoff, Assistant Professor of Human Genetics, was recently awarded a grant of $3.8 million by the NIMH to study schizophrenia through an analysis of the human genome. "This genome-wide study is a radical departure from previous disease-association research, which focused on a single gene or a limited number of positions on the chromosome based on a small sample," Ophoff commented. The research, in collaboration with Universty Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands, hopes to identify the genetic basis for schizophrenia, which will lead to better diagnostics and therapies. "UCLA Receives $3.8M for Schizophrenia Study"
http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_274192525.html
"Grant Will Be Used to Fund Four-year Genetic Study of Schizophrenia"
http://www.knx1070.com/pages/94946.php?contentType=4&contentId=215384
"UCLA Scientist Awarded $3.8 Million Grant for International Study to Identify Genetic Links to Schizophrenia"
http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=7370

The October 2006 issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics features a report on the link of HLA-B, an immune system gene, to the increased risk of a female child developing schizophrenia, when the child's HLA-B genotype is too similar to that of the mother. Christina Palmer, Associate Professor in Human Genetics and Psychiatry, co-authored the paper with Hsin-Ju Hsieh, Elaine Reed, Janet Sinsheimer, Associate Professor in Human Genetics, Biomathematics and Biostatistics, J. Arthur Woodward, Jouko Lonnqvist and Leena Peltonen. http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=7304
"Mom-to-Daughter Gene May Help Spur Schizophrenia"
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=534843
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2006/09/29/hscout534843.html

Congratulations to Steve Horvath, York Marahrens, and Chiara Sabatti on their recent promotions to the tenured rank of Associate Professor and to Eric Sobel for his promotion to Adjunct Professor.

In Readers Digest, August 2006, Dr. Wayne Grody, director of the UCLA Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, commented on gene patenting by private companies and legal battles over gene ownership which impede access to clinical testing. Dr. Grody's own testing on deafness in children came to a halt when a private company enforced its patent on the connexin-26 gene, claiming exclusive rights to the gene and charging prohibitive royalties for the right to perform testing.
"They Own Your Body"
http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=28041

In the online journal Human Molecular Genetics, Dr. Guoping Fan, Assistant Professor, Department of Human Genetics, and senior author of a new report released by the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA, commented on the three year study which produced neural stem cells from federally approved embryonic stem cell lines. This research hopes to develop transplantation cells that will someday cure diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. "This study is a very important first step in looking at the differentiation process in neural stem cells," said Fan. "Now we have a direct measurement of the types of cells that eventually, we hope, will be used for transplantation."
"New Study Hopeful on Neural Stem Cells"
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060804-094235-3027r
"Federally Approved Human Embryonic Stems Inferior to those Donated for Research"
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=19278
"Neural stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cells carry abnormal gene expression"
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/uoc--nsc_1080406.php

Dr. Edward McCabe, Professor of Pediatrics and Human Genetics, Physician-in-Chief, Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, and co-director of UCLA Center for Society and Genetics, discusses important issues to consider before choosing a genetic test, in The Washington Diplomat, August 2006.
"Test of a Lifetime"
http://www.washdiplomat.com/August%202006/c1_08_06.html

Steve Horvath, Associate Professor of Human Genetics and Biostatistics, and Angela Presson, graduate student in Statistics, recently won the $1,000 award for "Best Presentation" at the Critical Assessment of Microarray Data Analysis (CAMDA) Conference, June 7-9, 2006, at Duke University. The presentation discussed the results reported in "Integration of Genetic and Genomic Approaches for the Analysis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Implicates Forkhead Box N1," co-authored by Angela Presson, Eric Sobel, Jeanette Papp, Aldons J. Lusis, and Steve Horvath. Sobel, Papp and Lusis are also faculty in the UCLA Department of Human Genetics.

Marc Suchard, Assistant Professor of Human Genetics and Biomathematics, and student Ben Redelings, won the Mitchell Prize for the paper "Joint Bayesian Estimation of Alignment and Phylogeny," Systematic Biology (2005) 54:401-418. Co-sponsored by the American Statistical Association and the International Society for Bayesian Analysis, the $1000 prize recognizes an outstanding paper that describes the solution, by Bayesian statistical analysis, of a significant applied problem. The award will be presented in June at the 8th Valencia Meeting on Bayesian Statistics, Benidorm, Spain.

On KPCC 89.3 FM's "Air Talk" on April 18, 2006, Dr. Edward McCabe discussed the legal and ethical issues of research involving donor samples. Dr. McCabe is chairman of the UCLA Department of Pediatrics, Mattel Endowed Executive Professor of Pediatrics, professor in the Department of Human Genetics and co-director of the UCLA Center for Society and Genetics.
"Do You Know Where Your DNA Is?"
http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/index.shtml

Dr. Wayne Grody, Departments of Pathology, Pediatrics and Human Genetics at UCLA, and director of the UCLA Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory, was recently appointed to serve as chair of the Genomic Medicine Program Advisory Committee by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The committee will help the government establish guidelines for the use of genetic information in the medical treatment of veterans.

Dr. Grody recently commented on informed consent in research and the issue of individual ownership of patient samples in The New York Times Magazine, April 16, 2006.
"Taking the Least of You"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/magazine/16tissue.html?pagewanted=all

In The (London) Guardian, April 18, 2006, Dr. Grody was quoted on his sideline as a science consultant for movies and TV. His credits include "The Nutty Professor," featuring Eddie Murphy, and the TV drama "Chicago Hope;" he says, "It's fun and it gets me out of the lab."
"Putting the Science in Fiction"
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,1755934,00.html

Dr. Stephen Young, Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics, and Dr. Loren Fong, Associate Professor of Medicine, co-authored research which revealed encouraging insights into a possible treatment for some aspects of progeria, a rare genetic aging disease occurring in children. Drs. Young and Fong generated a gene-targeted mouse model of progeria. Mice with progeria showed improvements in body weight, bone integrity, grip strength and survival, when treated with farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI), an experimental drug used in the treatment of some cancers. The article appeared in the February 16, 2006 online issue of Science. Media coverage includes the following:
"Cancer Drug Treats Early Aging"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4719674.stm
http://www.huahintoday.net/index.php?action=show&type=news&id=724
"Cancer Drug Fights Premature Aging Disease in Mice"
http://archives.betterhumans.com/
"Fresh Hope for Hayley in Pioneering Experiment with New Cancer Drug"
http://www.bexhilltoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspxSectionID=494&ArticleID=1366062
"Progeria Mice Show Improvements with FTI Treatment"
http://rarediseases.about.com/b/a/248878.htm

Dr. Eric Vilain, his research team, Phoebe Dewing and Charleston Chiang, and several UCLA collaborators including Marie Francoise Chesselet and Paul Micevych, determined that Sry proteins previously thought to only be associated with the development of the gonads and the making of a male fetus are also involved with brain cells that produce tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) which synthesizes dopamine, a key neurotransmitter controlling certain motor activities. The study gives a molecular clue on why diseases like Parkinsons occur more in males than in females. Dr. Vilain commented, "It was a big surprise. I was expecting Sry to have more to do with a region involved in sexual behavior, like the hypothalamus, than a region involved in motor control," and added that "We repeated it many times to be sure." The article appeared in Current Biology, February 21, 2006, and was reported in many media sources including:
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060220/full/060220-9.html
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/221/1
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/dn8753.html
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=531113

The research of postdoc, Sven Bocklandt, and Human Genetics faculty Eric Vilain and Steve Horvath, in collaboration with Dean Hamer (NIH) has recently been published in the February 2006 issue of Human Genetics. The work suggests that the inactivation of one of two X chromosomes which a mother passes genetically to a child, may be involved in the determination of the child's sexual orientation. "When we looked at women who have gay kids, in those with more than one gay son, we saw a quarter of them inactivate the same X in virtually every cell we checked," Bocklandt said. "That's extremely unusual." The finding is reported in the following:
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=531088 http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid25975.asp
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7002505293

Dr. Katrina Dipple, UCLA Assistant Professor of Human Genetics, was interviewed in TV Guide's Dec. 12-18 issue, on the likelihood of TV family members being related.

The January 2006 edition of Discover, the magazine's "Year in Science" edition, recognized research reported by the faculty and students in the Department of Human Genetics as among the top 100 science stories of 2005. Drs. Rita Cantor, Stan Nelson and Dan Geschwind and graduate students Jennifer Stone and Jackie Duvall identified a region of chromosome 17 very likely to harbor a gene contributing to the risk of developing autism by boys. The manuscript, published in The American Journal of Human Genetics, reports the first formal replication of the linkage of a chromosome region to autism. This research is the result of a series of investigations implicating chromosome 17 in autism, limiting the linkage finding to families with only affected boys and replicating the same linkage in boys. Such a specific replication is very rare in genetically complex disorders such as autism. Additional mapping in the families restricted the linked chromosome region to 17q21. This finding is referred to by Discover as "No. 52: New Secrets of the Genome Uncovered". The American Journal of Human Genetics article is available on page 1050: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/contents/v76n6.html

Eric Vilain, Associate Professor of Human Genetics, presented a talk "Between a Man and a Woman" on January 19, 2006 at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. The lecture was part of the 2005-06 Horning Lecture Series, on "Marriage, Reproduction and Sexuality". "Who we are, male or female, is profoundly imprinted in us," Vilain said. "If there is any variation, it can generate fear of the unknown, or of people who are different." Vilain's research in the area of intersexuality focuses on identifying genes involved in sex determination. The full article appears in The Corvallis Gazette-Times: http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2006/01/20/news/community/friloc05.txt