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.

Clotting is capturing attention as a frequent complication associated with COVID-19. This post reviews the basics of: how clotting happens; how it is dissolved; what problems it may cause; and how is it treated.

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.

We review the intricate genetics of the immune system that could contribute to the development of endometriosis including the different stages of progression as well as factors that might protect against the disease development. This article highlights how complex conditions such as endometriosis can have complex genetic contributions involved in its development.

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.

Mitochondrial donation is an emerging reproductive technology applicable to women who suffer from mitochondrial disease. In this blog, we firstly summarize what mitochondrial donation is and how it is being regulated. Secondly, we explore ethical issues that arise beyond the scope of traditional artificial reproductive technologies as a result of the unique features of mitochondrial donation.

There's no doubt that doctors are some of the most highly respected and well-paid professionals in the world. And with that comes a great deal of responsibility, which is why it’s so important for doctors to take steps to protect their patients from medical malpractice and negligence. This article will discuss some of the best steps doctors can take to avoid accidentally falling into such a trap.

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.

In this article, we are going to look at one proposed mechanism of how vaccine mRNA could be negatively affecting immune response in certain individuals through exosomes.

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!

There is a small unvaccinated minority of people who already have to contend with certain added health difficulties on account of their existing health problems. Here we propose some exemption criteria that should be strongly considered in specific situations expressed to doctors by patients expressing their understandable fear of the risks of accidentally worsening their already existing disabilities by unusual vaccine adverse event.

The field of medicine is working hard to keep up with advances in genome sequencing technologies but remains far behind due to difficulty in implementing some of the new, unfamiliar, and expensive protocols. Here we have focused on recent research and developments in clinical genomics, intending to highlight some of the progress being made towards optimization and large-scale implementation of genome sequencing in clinical settings.

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?

We struggled to find a good summary of the Omicron mutations especially as to why the authorities were so concerned about originally. So, we did bit of our own research. This post looks at different predictive models of what might be expected from the Omicron, and the possibility that Omicron could be an early example of immune escape from vaccines.

This post is about possible unusual findings in a human genome of a presence of what is referred to as supernumerary marker chromosome - an independent fragment of a chromosome derived from any of our naturally occurring chromosomes. In essence, a person ends up having an additional tiny chromosome, and the clinical consequences of this can be quite varied.

In this post we summarize what Merogenomics perceived as the biggest themes in current medical genomics from the the latest conference put on by the American Society of Human Genetics. We also mention what themes are emerging, what is the usual information and what did not get as much attention as we might have expected.

This list of genes is extremely valuable for any doctor dealing with medical genomics as it consists of genes not only vetted for their association to a condition, but these are also genes where a medical actionability is available to the doctors. In this context, actionability refers to available medical intervention as defined by current standards of care.

Technology is not waiting for clinical practice to adjust itself to what is already available to doctors - the research is always continuously evolving to deliver ever increasing benefits.

Future of Next Generation Sequencing 2021 virtual summit review.

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! 

Wait! What? The human genome was not fully decoded already? That’s right, even though the Human Genome Project exhibited the first maps of the human genome in 2000, and announced it as complete in 2003 – a small fraction of the human genome was never resolved due to technological limitations. But the day has finally arrived!

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 is a dramatic recounting of a mental health patient who used clinical pharmacogenetic DNA testing to improve their situation. This story has turned out to surpass our expectations in how much this individual was helped! Not only were we able to identify that a medication this person was on had an important personal use warning based on that patient’s genetics, but also another massive change took place for the benefit of this patient afterwards.

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.

Pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics is the study of how our genes impact the medications we take. Each one of us is programmed by having a variety of different mutations in our genes that influence how medications are processed by our body, and this information can be collected and then examined to help determine how medications should be dosed to best match how we metabolize (break down within our body) the medications we use, or even help avoid taking medication altogether because it could be toxic to us. Here we describe how the levels of evidence for pharmacogenetics are established.

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.

This post is to inform doctors who are starting to realize the value of medical DNA testing and to inform them about the best indications that DNA testing should be strongly considered. DNA tests are selected for patients as a possibility to obtain a clearer clinical picture.

Polycystic kidney disease is a genetic disorder that can affect the kidneys. It causes cysts in the organs and makes them swell up, which over time could lead to renal failure if untreated. Polycystic kidney disease can be caused by mutations to different genes, some of which will be discussed in this post.

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 post explains the different DNA testing options available to patients/consumers who seek to discover potential genetic causes of an already existing condition. The testing also applies to a person who wants to screen before any clinical symptoms of a condition become apparent.

With all the attention of the COVID-19 causing virus (SARS-CoV-2), we have been bumping into lots of literature related to viruses in general and one virus in particular grabbed our attention as it has been reported to be the leading cause of birth defects in newborns worldwide. The virus of interest is the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) which belongs in the herpes viruses family.

Anticancer drug therapy, widely known as chemotherapy, uses medication to kill or slow down cancer cell growth. However, its effectiveness has huge fluctuations between individuals. The outcomes in some people are promising, while the same anticancer drug might have little to no effect in others with the same classification of tumor. The unpredictability of anticancer therapy outcomes is due to the diversity of genetic backgrounds of each patient. This is where precision oncology comes in. Defining a genetic characterization for individual tumors and how they will respond to anticancer drugs is key in guiding optimal patient tailored therapy on a case-by-case basis.

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.

There are 1 million caregivers in Alberta! That means the non-paid, non-professional people often are working, are raising children, have their own lives while taking on this additional role to help someone else live, people with disabilities, with health challenges and with aging-related needs. A lot of the caregiving role leads to emotional burnout. Caregivers Alberta was created by caregivers to support caregivers, working with clients on increasing their resiliency and their ability to bounce back from stressful situations and crises.

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!