New genetic markers for ulcerative colitis identified

piggy submitted, created time 2 days 11 hours (www.eurekalert.org)

An international team led by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers has identified genetic markers associated with risk for ulcerative colitis. The findings, which appear today as an advance online publication of the journal Nature Genetics, bring researchers closer to understanding the biological pathways involved in the disease and may lead to the development of new treatments that specifically target them.

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic, relapsing disorder that causes inflammation and ulceration in the inner lining of the rectum and large intestine

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Genetic testing may not be the best way to study one's ancestry

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 month 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

In recent years, companies providing personal genetic exams have sprung up like mushrooms. For a fee and a cheek swab, they can will identify the client's countries of ancestry, even to specific regions.

However, Charmaine Royal of the the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences has serious reservations:

"The general limitation, I'd say, of all of these tests, is that they can't pinpoint with 100% accuracy who your ancestors may or may not be. Some people are concerned that the biogeographical ancestry test reifies the notion of race

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