Recent studies highlight the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on gut bacteria, indicating that the virus can alter the gut microbiome and potentially persist there even after respiratory symptoms resolve. This finding opens up new treatment possibilities, including the use of antibiotics to manage bacterial reservoirs and probiotics to restore gut health. Probiotic-rich foods are crucial in maintaining a balanced gut microbiome, which is essential for overall health and may help mitigate some effects of viral infections. In this article, we summarize natural food sources of probiotics.

In this post, we look into the two primary benefits of DNA testing that people generally identify with: uncovering one’s ancestral links and health-related information.

We go over the most shared online stories related to DNA, genetics, and COVID-19 and present to you the top 10 list. As always, wild stories abound.

Dr. Geert vanden Bossche is currently the only expert we know of who dares to predict the ending to the current pandemic (warning, it ain’t pretty). How do the IgG4 antibodies seen in mRNA vaccinated fit into all of this?

Iodine is necessary for proper brain development. However, fluoride exposure could impede proper iodine uptake and potentially affect the brain. Could fluoride exposure be responsible for the rise in autism we have been witnessing worldwide in the last few decades?

We explore the available science to see if fasting can be used to remove unwanted antibodies from our body, such as the IgG4 antibodies observed to be notably increased in some of the mRNA vaccinees.

Can a triple helix DNA exist in biology besides in our imagination of alien creatures? We delve into the concept of how such structures could be formed and how they could be advantageous.

Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche’s new book, The Inescapable Immune Escape Pandemic , is reviewed. See how he makes predictions of the impending but catastrophic end to the pandemic.

A compilation of the most shared genetic stories of 2022 sorted by what fascinated the public the most - as always, ranging from super cool to super absurd.

Inflammation is very familiar to us and we know it can be bad. But how and why does it exist in the first place? In this post we explain inflammation as an innate immunity defensive mechanism and also how it can be a double-edged sword. Plus, how to stay on top of it.

In this post, we talk about the mystery behind why the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines had to be chemically manipulated to achieve their success and what this chemical alteration consisted of, and then we ask questions about what it means for any further potential biological impacts because so many gaps in the knowledge of this new technology need to be filled.

Predictions of outcomes for the ongoing pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 are scarce. One notable exception is Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche who early on warned that mass vaccination during a pandemic would have dire consequences on the population immunity. Here Merogenomics provides a simple graphical chart along with detailed explanations of his thoughts on the complex interplay between viral infection and the effect on the immune system in vaccinated versus unvaccinated individuals.

A very unusual potential pathway to cancer development has been proposed from mRNA vaccines (but so far completely unconfirmed). It involves the vaccine’s mRNA independently adopting a certain 3D shape that is different from the expected 3D shape of a SARS-CoV-2 RNA that codes for production of the spike protein. This different 3D shape of the vaccine’s mRNA would then lead to an unexpected binding of cellular proteins and RNA, removing them from their native function. If this interference of normal function became great enough, it would have the potential to promote cancer development.

The Omicron appears to have become one of the most infectious viruses we ever had to contend with - the exact opposite trend of what we wanted to accomplish during the management of the pandemic, which was to dramatically decrease the transmission of the virus in the population. But no one is asking why this has happened? For this reason, we were highly interested in Dr. Bossche’s latest blog post pertaining to why the Omicron is both more infectious and milder in nature than previous variants, and how this development could be leading to the future progression of the pandemic.

Recently Merogenomics has published a video on a scientific investigation into whether vaccines might be influencing the menstrual cycle and/or the duration of menses. What followed was hundreds of comments on what so many women have experienced, and who described their extreme experiences in detail. We decided to present it in a graphical format, at least until we see a proper scientific analysis of these extreme outcomes being reported!

At the end of every year we like to see what online articles tied to DNA have captured the most attention, and we rank the top 10. One consistent theme is that typically these will be the stories with the most emotionally gripping content of the past year! So, what did we find this year?

Two NIH grants that funded the work in Wuhanwere finally made publicly available. They were not provided voluntarily though. It is the Intercept that finally provided access to these two NIH grants, not any public agency. And they had to sue the NIH to get access to their Freedom Of Information Act request for these “public” documents and they are staggering! The type of research done is what we describe as crazy dangerous! 

One very strong candidate for the evasion of antibodies, including those of vaccines, that you might have heard about, is the Lambda variant. We wanted to drill in a bit deeper here to show you on a molecular level how cleverly the virus has mutated to start escaping the antibodies specifically mounted against the viral spike protein. And also how viruses could potentially take advantage of antibodies to infect more cells.

This article was inspired by what we consider to be the best illustration of overall immune system functions that we have seen. More specifically, the illustration concerns the immune system reaction to a viral infection by enveloped viruses such as coronaviruses.

This post examines the theories of Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche about virus immune escape. And specifically, his claims that mass vaccinations will potentially help develop immune escape variants of SARS Co-V-2 and why this could be very dangerous to everybody.

After a year long campaign of ridiculing and silencing any public suggestion that SARS-CoV-2 virus could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory, suddenly the media is very open to entertaining this notion. This is such a strange tale of how public perception is shaped by prevailing propaganda, but what we can say with high certainty is that the public’s perception in the US of the virus’ origin has so far been shaped by two figures with a staggering conflict of interest: Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Peter Daszak.

Everyone in the world probably knows by now that if someone gets infected by SARS-CoV-2 virus, the resulting impact can range from a complete lack of symptoms to severe respiratory failure leading to death. Obviously, one possible contributing factor that would be worth investigating is the role of our personal genetics. So, what have we learned so far?

This article is based on the information that is reported in a publicly available database compiled by the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), termed the Vaccination Adverse Events Reporting System. This database was set up approximately 30 years ago to allow anyone to report any side effect (whether adverse or non-adverse) suspected to be from taking a vaccination. The idea of the database is to be able to capture any worrisome events and allow rapid investigations of vaccine safety. We hope we have got your curiosity going enough to now check out what this database has shown so far for the different vaccines, and especially how that might compare to the new mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The results are definitely captivating.

In the summer of 2020, a curious hypothesis came out that perhaps COVID-19 actually emerged many years prior in China. This hypothesis was based on the fact that in 2012 six miners became severely ill with a mysterious inflammatory lung disease. Drs. Latham and Wilson proposed that SARS-CoV-2 could actually have evolved in the lungs of the miners that became ill after being infected with a bat virus. One major problem with this hypothesis was that there was no prior scientific evidence that human lung tissue could act as an environment that could drive the substantial mutational changes that would be required for adaptation of a bat virus to a human-infectious virus. However, thanks to the current pandemic taking place around the world, it appears that we finally have evidence that this indeed can happen.

For the past couple of years, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, Merogenomics has posted articles dedicated to the genetics that concern romantic relationships. We started the trend with the genetics of sexuality, then last year we moved to the genetics of love, and we wanted to play a “dirty” joke by completing the trinity of relational aspects with a topic dedicated to… the genetics of cheating!

For a fifth year in a row, we review the most shared genetic stories on social. The only metric we look at is the highest number of shares for any content related to genetics. These are all over the board, from absurd to celebration of our greatest achievements, DNA-related stories that captured our imagination the most in 2020!

This story of a UK new SARS-CoV-2 strain exemplifies how rapidly the leaders are willing to respond to maintain the general safety of the populatio. How the decision was made to proclaim the emergence of this new threatening strain is not discussed in the media and very few have actually probed for its scientific merit. But are you curious, where did it come from? Very few people get to peak behind the curtains.

There is a massive public debate going on about the COVID-19 pandemic threat. Wherever you might stand on the spectrum of this debate - whether you decry anytime someone dares to step outside into the fresh air, or you belittle the existence of this infection as nothing more significant than a bad flu – there is one argument used by either side that gets a lot of collateral damage: the use of PCR tests to diagnose the infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. So where do we really stand on these PCR tests? Which side might be right and which side is wrong? Let's look at the science behind these PCR tests! You just might be surprised by what you find out.

The last two blog posts we have dedicated to going over a controversial, non-peer reviewed online report outlining reasons why the SARS-CoV-2 virus could not have been of natural origin. The authors promised to follow up that initial report with further proof of why a number of published coronavirus genomes from different animals are fake. We were really curious what kind of evidence they would propose to build their case to claim an academic fraud of such massive proportion, and this is what this post is about.

This is the second post of a two part series dedicated to analyzing the conspiracy theories regarding the SARS-CoV-2 origins that are different from the widely accepted “natural origin”, where we offer a contradictory, equally controversial viewpoint to a synthetic origin theory, and review the authors’ “smoking gun” evidence of why the SARS-CoV-2 was engineered.

Earlier this month a deeply controversial and outright shocking report came out purporting to provide smoking gun evidence that SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was laboratory engineered. With a title like "Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route" this report promised to have some incriminating statements so obviously we were going to investigate it, and see how the published science stacked against their claims.

In this post we will discuss what might seem like an obscure topic but is a very real-life issue: being composed of more than one genome. Or in other words, situations where an individual carries two different types of genetic information in the cells of their body. This is especially significant for those who are interested in prenatal DNA testing.

In this post we wanted to recount the story of a family with children that presented with hearing loss with no prior family history. It turned out to be very unique account of unsuspected genetics - a paradigm that will continue to happen with greater frequency as more people chose to analyze their DNA. This story demonstrates the potential power of proactive screening of one’s genetic state, and even hints at when it might become a necessity with regards to planning a family.

On this day (June 26th) in 2000, the completion of a working draft of the human genome reference was announced by President Bill Clinton. Today you can sequence your entire genome in mere hours but the very first human genome sequence that was decoded was an enormous undertaking of thousands of scientists from around the world in a project spanning more than a decade and at an estimated cost of $3 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money! And like any good story, there always has to be some controversy.

We naturally build antibodies against infectious agents that we come into contact with. Thus if someone gets infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus then they will produce antibodies against it. But now imagine, it would be pretty handy if you could have access to such antibodies without the need of infection. So how do we get our hands on such antibodies that we could use for treatment?

Perhaps this article is massively overdue. It is in fact a continuation of what we touched upon in our very first foray into studying the structure of SARS-CoV-2, when we mentioned one study which looked into potential compounds that could inhibit viral infection. The need for this story has since massively expanded, so in this post we will take you so deep that we peer into atomic structures and traverse the landscapes of biological molecules and list some our favourite chemicals that we found that might have protective capabilities against COVID-19!

One of the more compelling questions that has been asked around with regards to the Wuhan coronavirus is whether it infects different ethnic groups to a different extent. One paper was published recently that attempted to answer that question, and showed that indeed there could be racial differences for coronavirus infection based on what type of genetic mutations different populations might have. So let’s break it down.

The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has not been conclusively demonstrated. Meaning we do not know how it started to infect humans. There has been a tremendous amount of confusion and rumours with regards to whether this virus was human engineered rather than originating from nature. So let’s pose the nasty question: could the virus be synthesized by humans? To answer this we will dive deep into current scientific understanding of the architecture of this virus, and find out what makes SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus unique enough to have stirred so many controversies so quickly.

Could love be genetically driven? There seem to be strong arguments that say yes. The components of adult romantic love are actually similar to the intense love between parents and infants. It has been proposed that the already existing design used for offspring caring might have been evolutionarily adopted for use between the mates. There is support for the notion that romantic love and parental offspring bonding share a biological signature, including genetic footprint underpinning it.

It is that time of the year again where we continue our tradition of looking at some of the most frequently shared articles on social media relating to DNA and genetics. These vignettes are in stark contrast to the typical information shared on the Merogenomics blog which is carefully vetted for scientific accuracy - but just as entertaining to read. Also unlike the typical content of the Merogenomics blog, the content produced for social media’s viral output can at times be absolutely outrageous!

The maximum lifespan of a given species, along with its particular aging process, is believed to be rooted in genetics. With the introduction of technologies that allow for the decoding of entire human genomes, it is no surprise that anti-aging research is currently exploding. If aging is built-in into our DNA program, then without a doubt the most controversial approach to anti-aging would be to remove the program from our DNA. Is that even feasible?

The primary concern and screening available for women is that for chromosomal abnormalities. Until the recent introduction of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), the screening program consisted of testing for specific blood markers (whether protein molecules or smaller chemicals) and an ultrasound, in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. According to obstetrics guidelines, pregnant woman is supposed to be clearly told about her screening and testing options, and that includes traditional approaches, NIPT and even diagnostic invasive testing. Diagnostic invasive testing carry small but real risk of pregnancy loss. This is the primary reason why NIPT has gained so much in popularity because women don’t want to undergo diagnostic testing if they don’t have to, and place their pregnancy at risk. But because traditional screening is nowhere near as accurate as NIPT, with traditional screening, lots more women end up undergoing confirmatory diagnostic testing that they would not have to if they took the NIPT test in the first place.

Being a rare disease caregiver is an intimate story of compassion, as almost all caregivers live in the same household as their care recipient, and this usually involves caring for an immediate relative. For most, it is a tale of familial love and enormous dedication, which is staggering in proportion to what a daily routine of a typical adult might be. Only 1% is dedicated to the care of non-family members. Caregivers are modern-day heroes, quietly going about their demanding lives, without fanfare, and unfortunately too often, without much support to ease their difficult duties. On this international Rare Disease Day we dedicate this post to the topic of those who take care of the people afflicted with such conditions.

Valentine’s Day is coming and that day has become synonymous with the celebration of romance, partnership, love… and potentially sex at the end of the romantic, seductive day. Of course, the reality often strikes far from the fantasy, but fulfilled sexuality is a normal expectation of a healthy lifestyle, and perhaps there is no other day throughout the year that we go to such lengths to please and seduce each other. So to celebrate this unique day, we want to delve into the genetics of sexuality!

For a third year in a row, we are recounting the most shared genetic stories on social media so this has become our tradition to start the year. It is a collection of stories where the only metric we look at is the number of shares on stories about anything related to DNA. These can range from totally absurd, to very fascinating pieces of content that we would otherwise never come across if it wasn’t for this yearly review. Here are the most shared DNA-related stories on social media in 2018!

So you want to sequence your genome, all of your DNA, and look deep into the hidden secrets of your biological code? Then you sure will want to get quality information! It is easy to get excited about the results, but the majority of people who purchase any type of commercial DNA sequencing test, and even many of those selling it, actually have a poor understanding of the complexity of the process and the meaning of the results. With the speed of new DNA sequencing tests coming onto the market (at least 10 medical DNA tests are released per day, and who knows how many non-medical tests), many of them, if not the majority of the available tests on the market, will be providing DNA results that do not have any scientific validation, and hence no actual utility apart from having a bit of fun. However, while you are having some fun, you have to remember that you are disclosing access to your most private and precious biological information, your DNA. Instead, DNA information should be closely guarded by families, and retained for serious medical needs.

There are two types of technologies used to sequence genomes, any genomes. The most common one takes the genome that is cut up into millions of short fragments, and it is these short bits of your genome that are all being decoded by the instrument all at the same time. Computers then put all of these fragments back together to assemble your genome by comparing with an existing reference of what a human genome looks like. Basically imagine if you shredded a book in one of those office shredding machines, and afterwards you had to put it back together. Except that for a human genome, you wouldn’t be shredding one book, you would be shredding a whole bunch of bookshelves worth of books, and then putting it back together. On the other side of the spectrum is a long read DNA sequencing technology. As its name implies, it is a technology that can decode long stretches of DNA at a time. In this case the equivalent would be to try to put the book together with entire pages intact, as opposed to everything being shredded.

Very little scientific data has come out to assess the utility of genome sequencing in healthy people. While thousands upon thousands of papers have been published on the use of DNA tests in helping to diagnose conditions in order to help manage existing health problems in the population, very little attention has been paid to healthy people sequencing their genomes, despite the fact that thousands of people have already done so.

A new year is starting, and what better way to commence this year’s blog entry than with the recounting of the most shared genetic stories on social media in 2017. This can range in a whole gamut of directions, from the absurd to serious drama to political statements to scientific information, and is an interesting reflection of how genetic topics fascinate the public.

Everyone agrees on the importance of research to make medical progress. How this actually occurs is poorly understood in the general public, but it is assumed that once a treatment enters a clinical practice, it has been well researched. One of the areas of mystery is the role that research on animals plays in the progress of both human and animal medicine. But rather than getting into a debate on the ethics of animal research for human welfare, I wanted to point out a curious example in how agricultural research can also benefit human health.

One genome-related newstory that has stirred the public lately was last year’s announcement of a project to synthetically build a human genome. What do I mean by that? To build an entire human genome, the DNA code that makes each individual unique, with a machine base by base, chromosome by chromosome. You can imagine such information elicited quite a few gasps among the bewildered public.

The word value is tricky as it can have very different meanings to different people. It can be monetary, but it can also have a deeply personal value. In this post, we will look at value from multiple angles. How does the public see the medical utility value of genome sequencing? How does the public see the personal utility value of genome sequencing? How does the public see the cost value of genome sequencing? 

Which one of these values would be most important to you: medical, personal utility, or cost? It is not a trivial question to answer!

The new year is in full swing, resolutions have been almost all forgotten, and perhaps it is time to unwind to a social media biggest buzz of 2016 on topics of genome and DNA sequencing. And there is a lot to choose from, ranging from strange to curious to fascinating and always to the latest science.

Do you ever wonder what paramount events might be taking place behind the scenes that will shape your life and yet you never even know about it? One such event took place in Vancouver city not that long ago.