Overheard at ASHG 2016

Fun and interesting snippets of science from presentations at the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting 2016

“There are cats that are 3-4 years old that are alive and well, in comparison to a 22-week average lifespan”
Forbes D. Porter, NICHD Clinical Director, NIH, about some pre-clinical results during his talk on potential treatments for Niemann-Pick disease, in Session #43 Toward Therapeutic Discovery in Neurological and Neuromuscular Disorders
PgmNr 188, Thursday Oct. 20^th

“Lafora Bodies cause the stress on the neurons, so if we can reduce them, we can probably prevent the disease”
Tamar R. Grossman from IONIS Pharmaceuticals, during her presentation on ‘Antisense oligonucleotide therapy for the fatal epilepsy Lafora disease’, during Session #43 Toward Therapeutic Discovery in Neurological and Neuromuscular Disorders
PgmNr 186, Thursday Oct. 20^th

“Mice can be just like humans in that some like to run and some don’t”
Stefan Pulst, Department of Neurology, University of Utah, while discussing some in vivo experiments during his talk about spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2), in Session #43 Toward Therapeutic Discovery in Neurological and Neuromuscular Disorders
PgmNr 187, Thursday Oct. 20^th

“I can guarantee you that there will be some surprises”
George E. Tiller, Department of Genetics, Kaiser Permanente, during his talk on the prevalence of mutations in high and moderate risk cancer genes, when asked about future research, during Session #37 Hereditary Cancer Diagnostics
PgmNr 133, Thursday Oct. 20^th

“We have to spend a lot of time emphasizing what can and can’t be done”
Joe Grzymski, Senior Director, Applied Innovation Center, Desert Research Institute, while discussing the consumerization of genomics benefits research
23andMe Educational Seminar, Thursday Oct. 20^th

“Better phenotyping leads to better genotyping!”
Daniel Pelletier, Vice Chair of Research, Department of Neurology, USC, while speaking on studying multiple sclerosis patients at home using the myMS^TM app that is currently being developed by the team
23andMe Educational Seminar, Thursday Oct. 20^th

“The marshmallow test is something you can do with your kids if you want to torture them!”
Abraham Palmer, Professor and Vice Chair for Basic Research, Department of Psychiatry, UCSD, while talking about the delayed gratification test
23andMe Educational Seminar, Thursday Oct. 20^th