This article does not have an agenda to support vaccination program or vilify it. Meaning Merogenomics is not married to a camp of anti-vaxxers, or those who think everyone should be vaccinated (because not everyone is actually eligible to be vaccinated), and the purpose is to produce an article that looks at data to see how many questions of interest can be answered. Look at the image above to see what we attempted to answer. Benefits and limitations of these novel mRNA vaccines.

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.

Everyone knows how the incidence of autism has been on a constant rise over the years (currently approximately one in 54 children in the US and one in 66 in Canada). But what is not broadly understood in the general public is that genetics play a massive contribution in autism spectrum disorders. In turn, it is also not widely known that identifying the genetic factors in an affected autistic individual can help to more specifically discriminate the condition.

There were many great themes emerging from the 2020 American Society of Human Genetics conference. The biggest take home message is that medical genetics continues to grow at an enormously rapid pace, with consistently more patients all over the world having their DNA sequence decoded to help with their medical management and to help discover novel causes of the conditions affecting them - from rare diseases to more common health issues such as breast cancer or hyperlipidemia. Even really complex traits like infertility are being probed for influencing genetic factors. No condition escapes the microscope and some completely new diseases are described as well. It is becoming clear that medicine will be dramatically reshaped. Read on to find out why.

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.

Traditionally medicines have been developed to target entire populations. However, patient’s individual biological influences can dramatically shift drug effectiveness in comparison to just the population average. For this reason medication efficacy can actually be astonishingly low for any given person - far lower than people probably realize. We now have the means to start probing this information of how to properly match medications to an individual. It is based on a person’s genetics especially the specific mutations in a person’s DNA code that can result in differences in how we biologically react to a specific medication. This is referred to as pharmacogenetics.

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.

We start with the story of a cancer survivor who just recently completed an advanced DNA/RNA sequencing combo test for cancer predisposition; it was not only the very first time this test was used in Canada, it was the first time it was used anywhere in the world outside of US. This test is so new that we were a little bit jealous that the patient would end up seeing the DNA testing kit even before Merogenomics had the chance to analyze one!

Last month we published a post on DNA testing for cancer predisposition and had an accompanying video on the types of DNA tests that are available for those people either afflicted with cancer or that have a family history of cancer. This month we wanted to focus on those tests available to cancer patients, as mentioned in our video. We’ll start by explaining how cancer patients can benefit from DNA testing.

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.

This article is for anyone who is interested in learning about their potential genetic cancer predisposition that might have contributed to the onset of an existing or prior condition, or for those who have not developed cancer yet, but are worried they might be predisposed due to family history, and what DNA testing options might be available to them.

There are many reasons why medical clinics should considering adopting DNA testing to benefit their patients. The vast majority of doctors are already aware that DNA testing has had a huge impact in helping patients. But the problem is that many doctors are not familiar enough with this technology and how to best implement it in their practice. Here are the top benefits to consider in overcoming these barriers.

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.

To commemorate international Rare Disease Day 2020, we have a story of two boys growing up together, one with a rare disease, one without. A story that teaches us to appreciate the beauty that is gifted to us sometimes in most unexpected manner.