Envisioning the FTC as a Facilitator of Blockchain Technology Adoption in the Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing Industry

Seemingly overnight, the kingpins of the direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) industry shifted their focus from exploring their customers’ DNA to commodifying it. Companies like Ancestry or 23andMe that were once exclusively known as mere sources of “infotainment” now regularly sell consenting customers’ genetic data to pharmaceutical researchers or use it to develop drugs of their own. To gain these customers’ consent, both firms employ a series of long, complex clickwrap contracts that largely fail to apprise their readers of the potential risks of sharing their genetic data. Nor do these agreements provide any form of compensation to those consumers whose data ultimately facilitates the development of a new, profitable drug. Understandably, the relative autonomy major DTC-GT firms wield over their customers’ genetic information—and the manner in which that autonomy is gained—raises serious privacy and bioethical concerns. More directly, it reflects a stark lack of federal oversight of the data management and storage practices of the DTC-GT industry as a whole. The emerging patchwork of state consumer privacy laws—while certainly more robust than any existing federal legislation—likewise falls short in fully protecting the privacy and dignitary interests of the DTC-GT consumers whose genetic data is shared and mined for profit. This is not to say that DTC-GT consumers should be uniformly prohibited from contributing their genetic data to medicinal research. Such behavior should be encouraged to the extent this information can be transferred and stored securely. Nevertheless, the current exploitation of consumer data by major DTC-GT firms may, over the long term, inhibit medicinal progress by undermining demand for genetic testing and, thus, the pool of genetic data available for research. Accordingly, consumers and researchers alike would benefit from a more secure and equitable method of exchanging genetic information. This Note argues that the recent advent of “blockchain genomics”—a form of exchange that allows consumers to securely loan out their genetic information for research purposes in return for compensation—fits that bill. With mainstream DTC-GT firms unlikely to adopt such a system and no legislative solution on the horizon, this Note further suggests a role for the FTC, the country’s de facto privacy regulator, to nudge major DTC-GT firms in that direction by exercising various tools of its soft regulatory authority

A 500 kpc HI Extension of the Virgo Pair NGC4532/DDO137 Detected by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) Survey

We report the discovery of a ~500 kpc H I extension southwest of the Virgo Cluster H I-rich pair NGC 4532/DDO 137, detected as part of the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) Survey. The feature is the longest and most massive H I tail structure so far found in the Virgo Cluster and, at 1.8 Mpc from M87, the most distant from the main concentration of the intracluster medium. The structure is spatially and spectrally separated into two ridges and is defined by diffuse emission and discrete clumps of mass (2.5–6.8) × 107 M☉. All emission is blueshifted with respect to the NGC 4532/DDO 137 pair emission. Including diffuse emission, the structure has a total mass of up to 7 × 108 M☉, equivalent to ~10% of the system\u27s H I mass. Optical R-band imaging finds no counterparts to a level of 26.5 mag arcsec−2. The characteristics of the structure appear most consistent with a tidal origin

Wide HI profile galaxies

We investigate the nature of objects in a complete sample of 28 galaxies selected from the first sky area fully covered by ALFALFA, being well-detected and having HI profiles wider than 550 km/s. The selection does not use brightness, morphology, or any other property derived from optical or other spectral bands. We investigate the degree of isolation, the morphology, and other properties gathered or derived from open data bases and show that some objects have wide HI profiles probably because they are disturbed or are interacting, or might be confused in the ALFALFA beam. We identify a sub-sample of 14 galaxies lacking immediate interacting neighbours and showing regular, symmetric, two-horned HI profiles that we propose as candidate high-mass disk systems (CHMDs). We measure the net-Halpha emission from the CHMDs and combine this with public multispectral data to model the global star formation (SF) properties of each galaxy. The Halpha observations show SFRs not higher than a few solar masses per year. Simple SF models indicate that the CHMDs formed most of their stars almost a Hubble time ago, but most also underwent an SF event in the last 1-10 Myrs; the young stars now produce 10 to 30% of the visible light. The spatial distribution of the SF-regions is compatible with recycled stellar ejecta. We calculate representative dynamical masses from 1 to $\sim7 10^{11}$ M_sun, larger by factors of 2.5 to 7.5 than the baryonic masses of the luminous stars and gas. We test the Tully-Fisher relation for the CHMDs and show that these lie below the relation defined for lower mass galaxies, i.e., that their M_dyn is lower than expected when extrapolating the relation from lower mass galaxies to higher HI line widths.Comment: MNRAS in pres

Hoag's Object: Evidence for Cold Accretion onto an Elliptical Galaxy

(Abridged) We present new photometric and spectroscopic observations of the famous Hoag's Object, a peculiar ring galaxy with a central roundish core. The nature of Hoag's Object is still under controversial discussion. Previous studies demonstrated that a major accretion event that took place at least 2-3 Gyr ago can account for the observational evidence. However, the role of internal nonlinear mechanisms in forming the outer ring was not yet completely ruled out. These new data, together with HI and optical information from the literature, are used to demonstrate that Hoag's Object is a relatively isolated system surrounded by a luminous quasi-spiral pattern and a massive, low-density HI disc. The main stellar body is an old, mildly triaxial elliptical galaxy with very high angular momentum. We review previous formation scenarios of Hoag's Object in light of the new data and conclude that the peculiar morphology could not represent a late phase in barred early-type galaxies evolution. In addition, no observational evidence supports late merging events in the evolution of the galaxy, although further tests are required before safely dismissing this idea. We propose a new scenario where the elliptical core formed in the early Universe with the HI disc forming shortly after the core by prolonged "cold" accretion of primordial gas from the intergalactic medium. The low gas density does not allow intense star formation to occur everywhere in the disc, but only along a tightly wound spiral pattern of enhanced density induced by the triaxial gravitational potential.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures. MNRAS in press, minor changes to match published versio

The effects of acute CRAM supplementation on reaction time and subjective measures of focus and alertness in healthy college students

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of acute and prolonged (4-weeks) ingestion of a supplement designed to improve reaction time and subjective measures of alertness, energy, fatigue, and focus compared to placebo.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Nineteen physically-active subjects (17 men and 2 women) were randomly assigned to a group that either consumed a supplement (21.1 ± 0.6 years; body mass: 80.6 ± 9.4 kg) or placebo (21.3 ± 0.8 years; body mass: 83.4 ± 18.5 kg). During the initial testing session (T1), subjects were provided 1.5 g of the supplement (CRAM; α-glycerophosphocholine, choline bitartrate, phosphatidylserine, vitamins B3, B6, and B12, folic acid, L-tyrosine, anhydrous caffeine, acetyl-L-carnitine, and naringin) or a placebo (PL), and rested quietly for 10-minutes before completing a questionnaire on subjective feelings of energy, fatigue, alertness and focus (PRE). Subjects then performed a 4-minute quickness and reaction test followed by a 10-min bout of exhaustive exercise. The questionnaire and reaction testing sequence was then repeated (POST). Subjects reported back to the lab (T2) following 4-weeks of supplementation and repeated the testing sequence.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Reaction time significantly declined (p = 0.050) between PRE and POST at T1 in subjects consuming PL, while subjects under CRAM supplementation were able to maintain (p = 0.114) their performance. Significant performance declines were seen in both groups from PRE to POST at T2. Elevations in fatigue were seen for CRAM at both T1 and T2 (p = 0.001 and p = 0.000, respectively), but only at T2 for PL (p = 0.029). Subjects in CRAM maintained focus between PRE and POST during both T1 and T2 trials (p = 0.152 and p = 0.082, respectively), whereas significant declines in focus were observed between PRE and POST in PL at both trials (p = 0.037 and p = 0.014, respectively). No difference in alertness was seen at T1 between PRE and POST for CRAM (p = 0.083), but a significant decline was recorded at T2 (p = 0.005). Alertness was significantly lower at POST at both T1 and T2 for PL (p = 0.040 and p = 0.33, respectively). No differences in any of these subjective measures were seen between the groups at any time point.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Results indicate that acute ingestion of CRAM can maintain reaction time, and subjective feelings of focus and alertness to both visual and auditory stimuli in healthy college students following exhaustive exercise. However, some habituation may occur following 4-weeks of supplementation.</p

Long non-coding RNAs: spatial amplifiers that control nuclear structure and gene expression

Over the past decade, it has become clear that mammalian genomes encode thousands of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), many of which are now implicated in diverse biological processes. Recent work studying the molecular mechanisms of several key examples — including Xist, which orchestrates X chromosome inactivation — has provided new insights into how lncRNAs can control cellular functions by acting in the nucleus. Here we discuss emerging mechanistic insights into how lncRNAs can regulate gene expression by coordinating regulatory proteins, localizing to target loci and shaping three-dimensional (3D) nuclear organization. We explore these principles to highlight biological challenges in gene regulation, in which lncRNAs are well-suited to perform roles that cannot be carried out by DNA elements or protein regulators alone, such as acting as spatial amplifiers of regulatory signals in the nucleus

Determinants of penetrance and variable expressivity in monogenic metabolic conditions across 77,184 exomes

Penetrance of variants in monogenic disease and clinical utility of common polygenic variation has not been well explored on a large-scale. Here, the authors use exome sequencing data from 77,184 individuals to generate penetrance estimates and assess the utility of polygenic variation in risk prediction of monogenic variants