Angelina Jolie made the BRCA1 gene famous when she spoke out about its impact to her family and personal health. Pathogenic variants in the BRCA1 gene causes a person to have a higher than average risk for cancers such as breast, ovarian, melanoma, pancreatic, and prostate. There are treatment options available. This post discusses BRCA1 and its implications on health.

Chromosomes are structures made up of our genes. We have about 20,000 genes that need to fit inside every one of our cells. Our genes package themselves into chromosomes in order to fit inside our cells. I like to think of a chromosome as a string with beads on it. The beads represent our genes. If you hold one end of the string and twist the other end, it will coil - this is similar to how genes become chromosomes. If we unravel a chromosome, we get an extremely long piece or string of our genes.

We inherit a lot from our parents. We inherit their money, hopefully, their mannerisms, love, and in some families, their genes. In this blog post, we are going to discuss the ways genetic conditions can be passed on or inherited in a family by going over autosomal recessive, autosomal dominant, and x-linked inheritance.

When you cut yourself with a knife while preparing peppers, you feel the sting and visually see the separation of your skin in that area. Five days later after you’ve wrapped that part of your skin with a bandaid and cleaned it out, that separation is no longer. The area isn’t still bloody or pink and doesn’t hurt quite like it did that day. Your body healed itself and grew more cells to cover that area. It wasn’t magic. It was your body’s natural reaction to an injury. It was orchestrated by proteins that know how to fix the problem. And your genes are how the proteins came into existence knowing what to do. Our genes are the instruction manuals to our bodies. There are pages upon pages of instructions that tell the body how to heal from a cut or bruise, how to grow hair and a heart, and how to digest brownies. We have about 20,000 genes that are the foundation to who we are as humans. Other animals have more or less genes that tell those bodies how to grow and develop. In this post, we will go into more detail as to what genes are and their importance to our health.

In this article, we consider a thought experiment of what the future may look like if genetic testing of individuals becomes more commonplace and how that may impact reproductive options and rights. 

We are at a point in which we are the most tolerant of differing opinions, values, morals, and cultures than humans have ever been before. Not long ago, having a different value-set was not tolerated, but now, people of many faiths live in the same apartment complex or take a college course together. We often respect the idea everyone has the right to their opinion and morals. It is engaging and important to hear the different perspectives on topics in order to limit harm to others. Assisted reproductive technologies is one of the topics that needs to be constantly evaluated. It should be subjected to many perspectives to ensure benefit and limit harm. Below are a few newer concepts that can be discussed.

Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) is genetic testing of embryos created with in-vitro fertilization. PGT can test the embryos for the number of chromosomes it has or if the embryo has a genetic condition, like cystic fibrosis. Since PGT, numerous individuals and couples have gone on to have the families they hoped for without the medical complications associated with genetic syndromes. As a society, we have not stopped the use of PGT, and many of us consider utilizing the technologies ourselves when we undergo carrier screening or conjure a “what if” scenario. For more information on PGT, please check out our information page on it.