I received an announcement today of a new wiki endeavor--wikigene. The site is intended to provide a location for gathering and coordinating information about individual human genes. Like other wiki sites, it will be open to contributions and editing by anyone who wishes to do so. There will be oversight to avoid posting obvious junk, but the idea of letting the interested community develop the majority of the text is being preserved. 

The launching of the site was announced today in PLoS Biology, an online peer-reviewed publication. I assume it is also being announced on PLoS Genetics, but I haven't received that notice yet. The article is described as follows:

I almost missed Good Morning America's piece about the couple who selected which embryos to implant so they could  "guarantee" that their child would not have breast cancer. So many, many misconceptions arise from this event, as well as challenges to individual personal values. Let me talk a bit about the misconceptions, since I'm not intending to challenge anyone's deeply held values. 

First, a great kudo for Robin, who carefully chose each word she spoke about the event and its implications.  Her introduction was clear and accurate, with just the right amount of interest and no hype. 

My thanks today to Tammy Antzler, who supplied me with three references to information on research and progress in personalized nutrition. 

The first reference is a 75-page report from the Department of Health and Human Services on Personalized Health Care (PHC). The report details agencies of the government that are involved in the many different aspects of PHC. There are a few, very brief, references to diet, environnment, and genetics. These are generally genome studies--populations, not individuals.