What happened

Shares of genetic-testing pioneer Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ:MYGN) received a much-needed boost today, rising as much as 16%, after the company announced fiscal third-quarter 2017 financial results. The stock has witnessed a 42% decline in the last year, although it is now up roughly 28% year to date, as investors see signs of life for the company's most important revenue machine and are holding out hope for a pipeline of promising growth products.

The strong performance in the most recent quarter prompted management to raise its full-year fiscal 2017 financial guidance for revenue and narrow the range for earnings per share. As of 12:45 p.m. EDT, the stock had settled to a 15.5% gain.

Image source: Getty Images.

There were reasons for optimism and pessimism in the financial update. Consider how the most important products fared compared to last year's fiscal third quarter:

Metric

Fiscal Q3 2017

Fiscal Q3 2016

% Change

Hereditary-diagnostic-testing revenue

$140.8 million

$156.3 million

(10%)

GeneSight testing revenue

$23.9 million

N/A

N/A

Vectra DA testing revenue

$11.2 million

$12.3 million

(9%)

Prolaris testing revenue

$3.4 million

$5.2 million

(35%)

EndoPredict testing revenue

$2.3 million

$1.1 million

109%

Other revenue

$3.6 million

$2.5 million

44%

Data source: Myriad Genetics.

A 10% year-over-year drop in revenue from hereditary diagnostic testing may not seem like much reason to celebrate, but it marks the second consecutive sequential gain for Myriad Genetics after many quarters of decline. It's a silver lining investors aren't willing to overlook.

Of course, the array of promising growth products is turning in more mixed results. Products excluding GeneSight combined for a year-over-year drop in revenue of $1.7 million. In fact, if not for GeneSight, Myriad Genetics' total revenue would have declined. It's a major reason for the updated revenue guidance -- and investors should be happy to have GeneSight growing into a significant contributor to the overall business and performing well against offerings from competitors.

Metric

Fiscal Q3 2017

Fiscal Q3 2016

% Change

Total revenue

$196.9 million

$190.5 million

3%

Operating expenses

$139.7 million

$107.7 million

30%

Net income

$4.2 million

$34.5 million

(88%)

Data source: Myriad Genetics.

Efforts to rapidly scale new products and services have resulted in a large increase in operating expenses in recent quarters, eating away at net income. Last quarter was no different, but the increase in operating expenses is a necessary evil for investors looking for the company to turn the page long-term.

The company now expects full-year fiscal 2017 revenue to fall between $763 million and $765 million, compared to $754 million in fiscal 2016. Meanwhile, diluted earnings per share are expected to fall between $0.23 and $0.25, compared to $1.71 in fiscal 2016.

Investors are aware that Myriad Genetics is a company in transition, turning away from proprietary testing products (driven by price) and toward cheaper, larger-scale, and more flexible services such as GeneSight (driven by volume) that are in high demand from patients and clinicians. Viewed through that lens, there were no major surprises in the most recent quarter. The company continues to work toward its long-term goals.

Maxx Chatsko has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Here's Why Myriad Genetics Rose as Much as 16% This Morning - Motley Fool

May 3, 2017 Western spotted skunk. Credit: Robby Heischman.

Climate plays a key role in determining what animals can live where. And while human-induced climate change has been causing major problems for wildlife as of late, changes in the Earth's climate have impacted evolution for millions of yearsoffering tantalizing clues into how to protect animals facing climate change today. In a new paper in Ecology and Evolution, scientists have delved into the effects of Ice Age climate change upon the evolution of tiny, hand-standing skunks.

"By analyzing western spotted skunk DNA, we learned that Ice Age climate change played a crucial role in their evolution," says lead author Adam Ferguson, Collections Manager of Mammals at The Field Museum in Chicago and affiliate of Texas Tech University. "Over the past million years, changing climates isolated groups of spotted skunks in regions with suitable abiotic conditions, giving rise to genetic sub-divisions that we still see today."

Western spotted skunks are really stinkin' cute at two pounds, they're smaller than the striped Pepe Le Pew variety, their coats are an almost maze-like pattern of black and white swirls, and when they spray, they often do a hand-stand, hind legs and fluffy tail in the air as they unleash smelly chemicals to ward off predators. They're found throughout the Western US and Mexico, in a wide variety of climates they thrive everywhere from Oregon's temperate rainforests to the Sonoran, the hottest desert in Mexico.

There are three genetic sub-groups, called clades, of western spotted skunks. Often, clades develop when a species is split up by geography. If a species is separated by, say, a mountain range, the groups on either side of the mountain may wind up splitting off from each other genetically. However, the division of the skunks into three clades doesn't seem to have been driven solely by geographical barriers populations separated by mountains are more or less genetically identical. Instead, the skunks vary genetically from one historic climate region to another, due to Ice Age climate change.

"Western spotted skunks have been around for a million years, since the Pleistocene Ice Age," explains Ferguson. "During the Ice Age, western North America was mostly covered by glaciers, and there were patches of suitable climates for the skunks separated by patches of unsuitable climates. These regions are called climate refugia. When we analyzed the DNA of spotted skunks living today, we found three groups that correspond to three different climate refugia."

"That means that for spotted skunk evolution, climate change appears to have been a more important factor than geographical barriers," says Ferguson.

In the study, scientists used DNA samples from 97 skunks from a variety of regions and climates in the American Southwest. Upon sequencing the DNA, the scientists were surprised to see that the skunks split into three clades based on pockets of suitable climate present during the Pleistocene.

"Small carnivores like skunks haven't been well-studied when it comes to historical climate change," says Ferguson. "We know how small mammals like rodents respond to changing climates, and we know how bigger carnivores like wolves respond, but this study helps bridge the gap between them."

Ferguson also notes that skunks don't deserve the bad rap they get. "Skunks are a really interesting family of North American carnivores they're well-known, but not well-studied. And studying them comes with a cost they stink, even their tissues stink, and you run the risk of getting sprayed. But they're important to their ecosystems for example, they eat insects and rodents that damage our crops," he says.

Moreover, Ferguson says, the study can illuminate the bigger picture of biodiversity in the face of climate change an issue that grows increasingly relevant as human-driven climate change affects more and more of the world's animals.

"What we know about the past can inform what we expect to see in the future," says Ferguson. "Understanding these genetic subdivisions that happened as a result of changing climatic conditions can help us conserve skunks and other animals in the future."

Before working at The Field Museum, Adam Ferguson was affiliated with Texas Tech University and completed this research there. Ferguson's co-authors are affiliated with Angelo State University, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Zoological Park, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the University of New Mexico.

Explore further: Study finds climate, landscape changes may lead to more rabid skunks

Journal reference: Ecology and Evolution

Provided by: Field Museum

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Newswise The Harvard Medical School-based Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd.org) and the Sanford Program for the Midwest Initiative in Science Exploration (PROMISE) at Sanford Research have teamed to bring the latest developments in genetics into classrooms and communities in Massachusetts and South Dakota.

The Building Awareness, Respect and Confidence through Genetics project, or ARC, is part of pgEds broader initiative to engage high school students and the general public in conversations about the benefits and implications of advances in personal genetics. The Sanford PROMISE will contribute experience and expertise in biomedical science education programming in the northern Plains and extend the project into rural America.

The ARC project, which is supported by a five-year Science Education Partnership Award from the National Institutes of Health, includes creating curriculum and rolling out new and existing curriculum to teachers.

Given where genetic technologies are heading, its now more important than ever to be discussing the possibilities for improving our health and wrestling with the implications of knowing more about our genetic make-up, said Marnie Gelbart, ARC principal investigator and director of programs at pgEd. ARC is a project that sees opportunities for talking about genetics in many settings and relies on the expertise of and collaboration with teachers to bring these conversations into classrooms, schools, and communities.

The curriculum is transdisciplinary and focuses on genetics, identity and diversity through topics such as gender, race, behavior and genome editing. The first module on genome editing was released in February. Additional modules will be released as the grant progresses.

These topics are making their way into workshops for educators, particularly those teaching in middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities.

ARC hopes to empower teachers across all disciplines to stimulate dialogue about personal genetics, said David Pearce, executive vice president of Sanford Research. It has become increasingly important that we all, regardless of status or education background, better understand the benefits and implications the human genome has and will have in their everyday lives.

In the first year of the program, pgEd held a three-day workshop titled Genetics and Social Justice at Harvard Medical School that attracted nearly 50 educators from across the nation. This group included teachers from Brockton High School in Brockton, Mass., (Jonathan Shapiro, science chair, and David Mangus, science) and Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, S.D. (Lisa Cardillo, science, and Colby Peterson, social studies).

Working with these four lead teachers, pgEd and The Sanford PROMISE are paving the way for future workshops and community events. In April, the pgEd team visited Harrisburg High School for a community experience, and the team will host professional development workshops in Brockton, Mass., in June 2017 and Sioux Falls, S.D., in summer 2018. This summer, two rural high school educators from South Dakota will travel to Brockton with The Sanford PROMISE and work together with the Harrisburg teachers to help bring awareness of genetics to other South Dakota educators.

About Sanford Health Sanford Health is an integrated health system headquartered in the Dakotas. It is one of the largest health systems in the nation with 45 hospitals and nearly 300 clinics in nine states and four countries. Sanford Healths 28,000 employees, including more than 1,300 physicians, make it the largest employer in the Dakotas. Nearly $1 billion in gifts from philanthropist Denny Sanford have allowed for several initiatives, including global children's clinics, genomic medicine and specialized centers researching cures for type 1 diabetes, breast cancer and other diseases. For more information, visit sanfordhealth.org.

About pgEd

The mission of the Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd.org) is to raise awareness and spark conversation about the benefits as well as the ethical, legal, and social implications of genetic information. We aim to be inclusive of all voices in these discussions,regardless of socioeconomic or educational background, cultural or religious affiliation, and ethnic or personal identity. Founded in 2006, pgEds efforts include providing online curricula, organizing workshops for professionals, holding congressional briefings in Washington, D.C, engaging producers and writers of film and television, convening conferences, supporting an online learning tool (Map-Ed.org), collaborating with museums and libraries, and partnering with communities of faith.

This projectissupported by the National Institutes of Health under grant number R25OD021895. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors anddoes not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Continued here:
Harvard Medical School, Sanford Research to Engage Classrooms and Communities Through Genetics - Newswise (press release)

"This collaboration demonstrates our continued commitment to pain supporting our ambition to deliver four to five new products to patients in diseases with high unmet needs by 2022, as it is Grnenthal's first step into generating Big Data which plays an increasingly important role in drug development and is essential to drive innovation. One perspective in the context of precision medicine is to use human DNA as guidance for which drugs work best in which patients. We aim to use the outcome of the study to identify starting points for the development of innovative, highly effective medicines," emphasizes Gabriel Baertschi, CEO of the Grnenthal Group.

"Pain is a complex disease. As a worldwide leader in pain, we are continuously striving to expand the body of knowledge to offer solutions for those patients who don't have a treatment option today," said Klaus-Dieter Langner, Ph.D., CSO of the Grnenthal Group. "We are very much looking forward to working with our expert collaborators at 23andMe to learn about the causal relationship between genetic patterns and different aspects to pain. Ultimately, our goal is to research and develop innovative, highly effective medicines for patients in need," Langner concludes.

"The goal of this study is to understand genetic factors associated with the experience of pain and response to medications designed to alleviate pain," said Emily Drabant Conley, Ph.D., vice president of business development, 23andMe. "Pain is often a unique experience for each individual, and therefore complex to understand and treat. By leveraging large amounts of genetic and phenotypic data this study may help develop a more personalized approach to pain management."

The new 23andMe and Grnenthal study could shed more light on why individuals experience pain differently by understanding genetic factors associated with pain sensitivity, progression, severity, and response to treatments.

About 23andMe23andMe, Inc. is the leading personal genetics company. Founded in 2006, the mission of the company is to help people access, understand and benefit from the human genome. 23andMe has more than two million customers worldwide, with over 80 percent consented to participate in research. 23andMe, Inc. is located in Mountain View, CA. More information is available at http://www.23andMe.com

About Grnenthal The Grnenthal Group is an entrepreneurial, science-based pharmaceutical company specialized in pain, gout and inflammation. Our ambition is to deliver four to five new products to patients in diseases with high unmet medical need by 2022 and become a 2 billion company. We are a fully integrated research & development company with a long track record of bringing innovative pain treatments and state-of-the-art technologies to patients. By sustainably investing in our R&D above the industrial average, we are strongly committed to innovation.

Grnenthal is an independent, family-owned company headquartered in Aachen, Germany. We are present in 32 countries with affiliates in Europe, Latin America and the US. Our products are sold in more than 155 countries and approx. 5,500 employees are working for the Grnenthal Group worldwide. In 2016, Grnenthal achieved revenues of approx. 1.4 bn. More information: http://www.grunenthal.com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/23andme-and-german-pain-specialist-grunenthal-explore-the-genetics-of-pain-to-help-identify-new-treatments-for-patients-300450454.html

SOURCE 23andMe, Inc.

https://www.23andme.com

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23andMe and German Pain Specialist Grnenthal Explore the ... - PR Newswire (press release)

YouTube producer/host and genetics researcher Alex Dainis holds one of the tools of her trade.

In this series of articles, Live Science focuses the spotlight on some of YouTube's most popular science channels. Their creators weave together graphics, footage, animation and sound design in videos that can be as whimsical as they are informative, employing a range of techniques and styles. Yet all of them share a general curiosity and enthusiasm for the unexpected and fascinating science stories that exist in the world around us.

If you've ever wanted to peek behind the scenes at the day-to-day activities in a genetics laboratory there's a YouTube channel for that.

Vlogger and doctoral candidate Alex Dainis invites YouTube audiences into her lab at Stanford University, offering an insider's view of her journey as a graduate student training to work in the field of genetics.

Dainis who told Live Science that she loves talking about science "to anyone who will listen" uses her videos to share her affinity for cool science stories, to express her own considerable sense of wonder and excitement about all things related to genetics, to show how experiments are conducted in a lab, and to introduce scientists as real people, presenting "what we do and what our daily lives are like," she said. [The Most Interesting YouTube Science Channels]

Storytelling and science both hold equal fascination for Dainis, who worked in film production before attending graduate school at Stanford. But as much as Dainis enjoyed the moviemaking process, "I missed talking about science," she said. YouTube provided an outlet where she could bring the two together, and in 2012 she began posting short explainer videos describing interesting science stories and "fun facts," she told Live Science.

Her "Bite-Sci-zed" video nuggets of science are short each just a few minutes long and delve into diverse topics such as the spectrum of egg colors, what naked mole rats can teach us about cancer, periodical cicadas and their exoskeletons, and the genetics of seedless watermelons.

However, once Dainis began her graduate studies, she decided to take her YouTube channel in a more personal but still science-infused direction, producing videos that would share her daily experiences in the genetics lab as a doctoral candidate.

In the video series "What Is This Thing?" Dainis acquaints her audience with the common tools of her trade and a few uncommon ones. These laboratory items, which many non-scientist viewers are likely seeing for the first time, are an intrinsic part of genetics research, and Dainis' straightforward descriptions dispel some of the mystery surrounding how scientists sequence DNA and make the science more accessible.

She cheerfully introduces pipettes (syringe-like tools used to measure and move liquids), a hemocytometer (used for counting cells) and ethanol lamps a heating alternative to gas-powered Bunsen burners; Dainis said in the video that using them "makes me feel like I'm doing science on an old-fashioned whaling ship."

Another recent video documented something a little out of the ordinary in the life of a graduate student analyzing DNA with an astronaut, and exploring how NASA scientists can use genetic sequencing to monitor astronauts' health in space, and to search for extraterrestrial life.

"Sometimes it's really exciting and sometimes it's monotonous this is what science is, and I want to show a realistic picture of that," Dainis said.

And sometimes while making the videos, Dainis herself learns a thing or two. The chance discovery that nectarines were actually a type of mutant peach inspired Dainis to take a closer look at the genetics of the two fruits, resulting in "one of the coolest videos I did," Dainis told Live Science.

"Peaches and nectarines are actually the same fruit but with a single recessive allele difference," she said.

"I got to use some techniques in the lab that I use every day, and I got to show something very cool about a fruit that I had never considered before. That was so exciting. I was eating these fruits for years, and I had no idea they were the same thing!"

Her videos attract viewers representing a range of ages and professions, but the common threads running through all of them are fascination with science and curiosity about how it's done.

"I get comments from people all around the world; from middle-schoolers, from people thinking about careers in science, people who've been scientists for decades, and some people who're not in science but are interested in the process. They're in different stages of their careers, different walks of life I think it's very exciting that this community of science nerds has bloomed around these videos," she said.

Got a favorite science channel on YouTube that you think we should feature? Tell us about it in the comments or on Twitterand Facebook!

Original article on Live Science.

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YouTube's Alex Dainis: Blending Filmmaking and Genetics - Live Science

Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ:SGEN) reported solid first-quarter earnings on Thursday, but the potential expansion of Adcetris into treating patients in other cancer settings and the development of the rest of the biotech's pipeline are what investors are mainly focused on.

Metric

Q1 2017

Q1 2016

Year-Over-Year Change

Revenue

$109 million

$111 million

(1.8%)

Income from operations

($59 million)

($21 million)

N/A

Earnings per share

($0.42)

($0.15)

N/A

Data source: Seattle Genetics.

Image source: Getty Images.

Clay Siegall, Seattle Genetics' chairman, CEO, and president, explained why the company delayed filing for approval of Adcetris in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) using the ALCANZA trial:

And then we changed our guidance at our last conference call to mid-year, and that was because of our discussions with the FDA based on other data that we've had from investigator-sponsored trials, specifically two of them, which showed strong activity in CTCL with patients that were below the histology cutoff that we used in our ALCANZAtrial, and with patients that were in other subtypes of CTCL.

In other words, the added data could result in more CTCL patients approved to take Adcetris, producing more sales in the long term that should more than make up for the short-term lost sales from the delayed approval.

Adcetris has gotten more competition for patients with refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) after the recent approvals of Bristol-Myers Squibb's (NYSE:BMY) Opdivo and Merck's (NYSE:MRK) Keytruda, but Darren Cline, Seattle Genetics' EVP of commercial, doesn't see the new drugs as a threat:

Despite the recent FDA approval of a second PD-1 inhibitor in [the] relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma setting, we have seen no erosion in share in our existing relapsed-HL business. Most prescribers have indicated they view the checkpoint inhibitor agents as interchangeable and would use both in post-Adcetris later lines of therapy or palliative setting[s], if necessary.

Seattle Genetics has a lot of potential, but investors are going to have to be patient this year, with most of the value-driving events happening in the latter half of the year.

The application to treat CTCL patients with Adcetris won't come until the middle of this year, so an approval probably won't arrive until late 2017 or possibly even next year. The ECHELON-1 phase 3 trial in frontline Hodgkin lymphoma is supposed to wrap up this year, but management hasn't given any more specifics on timing -- suggesting that it's likely to come in the latter half of the year.

Two pipeline drugs -- vadastuximab talirine and enfortumab vedotin -- are progressing nicely toward potential approvals. But vadastuximab talirine is still enrolling the phase 3 trial required to gain regulatory approval, and the registration trial for enfortumab vedotin won't start until the second half of this year.

Brian Orelli has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Seattle Genetics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Seattle Genetics, Inc. Earnings: Solid Quarter, but Investors Wait - Motley Fool

Nandadevi Cortes Rodriguez, Ithaca College postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Department of Biology, has dedicated much of her research to studying genetics and evolution. Recently, Rodriguez won the award for Best Paper of Year in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology for her work researching speciation in birds.

Opinion Editor Celisa Calacal spoke to Rodriguez about her research, the findings of her paper and the importance of studying evolution.

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Q&A: Teaching fellow wins award for genetics research - The Ithacan

May 1, 2017 Golden orb-weaver spider (Nephila clavipes). Credit: Matjaz Kuntner, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Spider silks, the stuff of spider webs, are a materials engineer's dream: they can be stronger than steel at a mere fraction of weight, and also can be tougher and more flexible. Spider silks also tend not to provoke the human immune system. Some even inhibit bacteria and fungi, making them potentially ideal for surgery and medical device applications. Exploitation of these natural marvels has been slow, due in part to the challenges involved in identifying and characterizing spider silk genes, but researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have now made a major advance with the largest-ever study of spider silk genes.

As they report today in an advance online paper in Nature Genetics, Penn scientists and their collaborators sequenced the full genome of the golden orb-weaver spider (Nephila clavipes), a prolific silk-spinner that turns out to produce 28 varieties of silk proteins. In addition to cataloguing new spider silk genes, the researchers discovered novel patterns within the genes that may help to explain the unique properties of different types of silk.

"There were so many surprises that emerged from our study: new silk genes, new DNA sequences that presumably confer strength, toughness, stretchiness and other properties to silk proteins; and even a silk protein made in venom glands rather than silk glands," said senior author Benjamin F. Voight, PhD, an associate professor in the departments of Genetics and Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics. "All this new information should greatly advance our efforts to capture the extraordinary properties of these silks in man-made materials."

Even though spider silks have been studied for more than 50 years, earlier foundational work had identified only a comparative handful of spider silk genes. Even recent work from species with smaller silk repertoires than the golden orb-weaver's were incomplete. To find all of the silk genes hidden across the golden orb-weaver's genomethe veritable "lab rat" of spider silk sciencerequired the construction of the entire genome, a daunting task in itself.

In the new study, Voight and his colleagues began with the herculean task of sequencing and reassembling the genome of the golden orb-weaver: a task comparable to solving a multimillion-piece jigsaw puzzle, with few clues as to how these pieces fit together.

In the golden orb-weaver's genomewhich turns out to be about as large as the human genomethe researchers identified more than 14,000 likely genes, including 28 that appear to encode spider silk proteins, known as spidroins.

Spidroins have been classified into seven categories according to their protein sequences and functions; these categories include aciniform silk for wrapping prey (and tying down partners for mating); and the super-strong major ampullate silk from which spiders (and Spider-Man) swing while at work. However, some of the newly discovered spidroins have sequences that do not fit neatly into any of these categories, suggesting that the encoded silk proteins may have novel functions, or that the existing categories need to be redefined.

An extensive computational analysis of the orb-weaver's spidroin genes revealed nearly 400 short sequencesmany never before describedthat appear repeatedly in these genes with small variations and in different combinations. These repetitive spidroin "motifs" are of great interest to biologists and engineers because they are likely to confer the key properties of a given spider silk, such as high-tensile strength, flexibility, or stickiness. The analysis also revealed novel, higher-order organizations of these motifs into groups of motifs ("cassettes") and groups of groups ("ensembles").

Voight's team also examined gene transcripts from different orb-weaver silk glands and in each case found transcripts belonging to more than one spidroin class, suggesting that these glands are not strictly specialized for producing one type of silk. "We found significantly more complexity in silk production than we expected," Voight said.

The biggest surprise was the discovery that one of the orb-weaver's spidroinsFLAG-b, a novel discovery by the groupappears to be produced primarily in the orb-weaver's venom gland rather than in any silk gland, hinting at intriguing new functions for silk connected to prey capture, immobilization, or preservation.

In their analyses of the genome data, Voight and colleagues also identified 649 likely genes that are not spidroin genes but are highly expressed in silk glands, and thus probably have roles in converting the liquid silk from spider cells into solid, spinnable threadsa tricky process that biotech engineers are just beginning to achieve outside of spiders.

Voight and his team are now following up with a genome-sequencing study of Darwin's bark spider, which makes the strongest known silks, and has been known to span rivers with them.

The scientists are also at work on technology for the rapid production of silks in the lab starting from their spidroin DNA sequences, to better understand how these sequences and their motifs encode silks' biological and physical properties.

"When I say that we'd like to build a 'web-shooter' like Spider-Man's in the lab, I'm only half joking" Voight said.

Explore further: 3-D printing spiders

More information: The Nephila clavipes genome highlights the diversity of spider silk genes and their complex expression, Nature Genetics (2017). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/ng.3852

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So it sounds like, in the future, people who have surgery to repair brain damage may literally be said to have "cobwebs in the attic".

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Scientists illuminate genetics underlying the mysterious powers of ... - Phys.Org

Genetic selection for taste seems to outweigh other onfarm factors such as breed, lamb gender or fat cover in the eating quality of lamb, says Grant Howie, general manager sales, Silver Fern Farms.

SFF says this in a report on research into lamb eating quality under the FarmIQ Primary Growth Partnership Programme. Based on at least 3200 consumer taste tests in New Zealand and the US in 2016, the results confirm earlier research that consumers view NZ lamb as a consistently high-quality eating product.

Howie says they had absolutely confirmed that consumers see lamb as a good quality product, so it gives us confidence that the product the farmers are producing is meeting consumer taste expectations.

Interestingly for farmers, the research did not find a significant or consistent effect on lamb eating quality from breed, lamb gender, pasture, growth rates, fat cover and marbling, butt conformation or locality, he says.

Several of these factors had minor effects, but all were outweighed by the right cut and correct ageing, he says.

This wasnt just a one-off study; there were several studies over that time. We were getting more and more information the more we tested, Howie told Rural News.

I think early on we were expecting, for example, a ram lamb effect; there is a lot of talk in the industry about that. But the more we tested it and the more thoroughly we looked at those sorts of things we couldnt see any ram lamb effect and it wasnt just a one-off study; we did several studies on that.

There is more variation in the genetics within a breed than there is one breed versus another.

AgResearch and FarmIQ have invested a lot of money in the last few years developing a SNP chip which helps identify different gene markers that can identify the markers for tenderness, low pH and marbling in lamb.

The same technology has been used in the beef industry.

Ram breeders can now use that technology to improve the genetic make-up of lambs or of rams and passed on to lambs obviously for tenderness, pH and marbling.

All the studies have confirmed that farmers are on track, and they can ensure we remain on track if the breeders use the genetic technology of the SNP chip and keep our lamb eating as good as it is now.

See the rest here:
Genetics key to lamb taste - Rural News Group

By Julius Young

Workers compensation in California is about to enter the tar pit of genetics.

Julius Young

Thats the take-away fromCity of Jackson v. WCAB (Christopher Rice), an April 26, 2017, ruling by the California Court of Appeals 3rd District that has been certified for publication.

Writing for the three-judge panel, (Blease, Hoch and Renner), Justice Blease finds thatapportionment may be properly based on genetics/heritability.

The case involved a claim of cumulative trauma to the neck of a 29-year-old police officer who had served for five years. This was not a long work history, but Rice alleged that repetitive bending and twisting of his head and neck on the job was the cause of his neck, shoulder, arm and hand pain.

X-rays demonstrated degenerative disc disease, and the qualified medical evaluator found that Rice had cervical radiculopathy and cervical disc disease.

The QMEs report and deposition indicated that heritability and genetics, and genetic issues, were a causative factor meriting apportionment.

In a supplemental report and in deposition,the QME cited various journal articles for the proposition that genomics is a significant causative factorin cervical spine disability.One such study claimed that the role of genetic factors in disc degeneration was as much as 75%. Another study claimed it was 73%.

The court notes that the QMEdecided to err on the side of the patient in case there was some unknown inherent weakness in the studyand thusapportioned out 49% to Rices personal history, including but not limited to the genetic cause of degenerative disease.

The award of the trial judge was based on the QMEs opinion, but the Workers' Compensation Appeals Boardpanel reversed, returning the case to the trial judge for an unapportioned award. The WCAB panel noted that:

Finding causation on applicants genetics opens the door to apportionment of disability to impermissible immutable factors ... Without proper apportionment to specific identifiable factors, we cannot rely upon Dr. [Sloane] Blairs determination as substantial medical evidence to justify apportionment 49% of applicants disability to non-industrial factors.

Rices employer appealed, and thus the case was eventually heard by the Court of Appeals panel.

After noting that there are a number of post-SB 899 cases thatuphold apportionment based on non-industrial pathological degenerative changes, the 3rd DCA states that:

We perceive no relevant distinction between allowing apportionment based on a pre-existing congenital or pathological condition and allowing apportionment based on a pre-existing degenerative condition caused by heredity or genetics.

Rice argued that the QME cannot have known his degenerative disc disease was caused by genetics because the QMEhad never developed data on his family medical history. The DCA panel states:

It was unnecessary for Dr. Blair to conduct such an analysis because her research indicated that genetics or heredity was a majority factor inallcases of degenerative disc disease."

Whether this case will be a game-changer in California workers comp remains to be seen.

The case will be appealed to the California Supreme Court, but whether itdecides to hear it is discretionary.

In the meantime, Ill make some predictions:

And there are major unknowns:

Were already in an era when some individuals are engaging their own genetic tests. Ive participated in 23andme.com, sending off a vial of my saliva. And in fact I get periodic updates about various screenings they do with my genetic material. As mapping the genome gets cheaper, will we see efforts to use that sort of data to rule in/rule out a genetic component to disability? And how scientifically sophisticated are the studies about genetic causation, anyway? This is a field that is rapidly evolving.

There are many questions to be answered. But it looks like a tar pit to me.

Julius Young is a claimants' attorney for the Boxer & Gerson law firm in Oakland. This column was reprinted with his permission from his blog,www.workerscompzone.com.

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Young: Into the Tar Pit of Genetics - WorkCompCentral (subscription)