August 2018

For Immediate Release Thursday, August 9, 2018 10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time Media Contact: Ann Klinck 301.634.7342 press@ashg.org Physician-Scientist to Receive Award at ASHG 2018 Annual Meeting ROCKVILLE, MD – The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) has named James R. Lupski, MD, PhD, as the 2018 recipient of the Victor A. McKusick Leadership Award.... Read More

In 2018, a legislative amendment was proposed that would protect the genetic privacy of immigrant families by restricting the use of their genetic material and data to helping reunify family members. The amendment would require that government officials restrict their use of DNA analysis to when it is truly needed and ensure that biological samples... Read More

ASHG comments on a new NASEM report evaluating issues and perspectives surrounding return of individual-specific research results. Read More

Written by Nascent Transcript writer Sandra Smieszek August 2018  Longevity–an individual’s lifespan under ideal conditions–and healthy aging are among the most complex phenotypes studied to date. Human lifespan varies greatly, with life expectancy ranging from 47.5 in Sierra Leone to 79.8 in the United States and 87.2 years in Monaco. Currently, the world is home... Read More

Written by Nascent Transcript writer Allison McCague August 2018 May 21 of this year marked the tenth anniversary of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), a landmark piece of legislation that Senator Ted Kennedy—one of the sponsors of the bill—called “the first civil rights bill of the new century of the life sciences.” GINA’s passage was the... Read More