“My wife and I were married by two rabbis, one Conservative and the other Reform, and neither of them gave us any information about Jewish genetic diseases.” So begins the story of Lawrence Sernovitz, himself now an associate rabbi at the Old York Road Temple-Beth Am in Abington, Pa. A little more than a year…
With additional mutations for genetic diseases continuing to be discovered among Ashkenazi Jews, genetic screening advocates are urging people to get tested for newly identified diseases, even if they have already been tested for other diseases. Some people may assume that since our genetic make-up is fixed, a DNA test is something that needs to…
Drugstores stock tests that gauge blood sugar levels, predict ovulation, ascertain pregnancy and determine whether illegal drugs are in the bloodstream. And back in May, the Walgreens pharmacy chain announced that it would offer testing kits of another kind: ones intended to detect genetic diseases. Within days of Walgreens’ announcement, however, the retailer tabled its…
A two-year pilot program that promotes genetic disease awareness and offers carrier screening will be introduced in Atlanta as a result of a $1.5 million grant from the Marcus Foundation, the philanthropy of Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus. The Victor Center for the Prevention of Jewish Genetic Diseases will manage the project, which will provide…
An emerging therapy that attacks cancer cells continues to show promise, most recently in two international studies on women who have breast and ovarian cancer and are carriers of cancer-causing mutations particularly prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews. Two trials tested the experimental capsule olaparib on women whose breast or ovarian cancer had spread to other organs,…
For a long time, Sheryl Grossman felt like she was alone in the world. Growing up in Flossmoor, Ill., she didn’t understand why she was so small, and why she had to see so many doctors. At the age of 14, her parents told her that she had Bloom’s syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive genetic…
A lawsuit now working its way through federal court is adding an interesting twist to the heated debate over genetic patenting. Two scientists from Fordham University are suing Massachusetts General Hospital over a patent on the gene that causes the rare Ashkenazi recessive genetic disorder familial dysautonomia. The two sides are each aligned with groups…
Advances in genetic analysis and its medical applications are bringing unprecedented, if uneven, change to the world of Jewish law. Most often, the matter of genetics is considered in the context of issues on either end of life’s spectrum: those that relate to fertility and to the identification of post-mortem human remains. “DNA analysis is…
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