Page 16 - Caroline Wright News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The adorable 70kg Rothschild baby was welcomed into the world at Chester Zoo on Wednesday. Incredible CCTV captured the moment the unnamed male 6ft tall giraffe was born as he dropped onto a bed of soft straw from a height of two metres from mum Orla. And it later showed the gangly calf making his first tentative steps and suckling from his mother. Mother Orla (above) gently nuzzles against her newborn calf at Chester Zoo Orla and ten-year-old dad Meru's fifth baby brings fresh hope for the species, which is one of the world's most endangered mammals - with only 1,600 left in the wild.

The type of chips used in some consumer DNA tests struggles to separate rare mutations from experimental noise, and a positive result for a rare cancer-causing gene variant is more likely to be wrong than right. Results for common variants are better, though. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips are a cheaper way to map genomes than full genetic sequencing. Using grids of hundreds of thousands of beads that react to specific gene variants by glowing in different colours, these chips can map whichever parts of the whole genome their designers choose. They are accurate for common gene va...

After hearing of cases where women had surgery scheduled after wrongly being told they had very rare genetic variations in the gene <i>BRCA1</i> that could significantly increase risk of breast cancer, researchers conducted a large-scale analysis of the technology used. They found that it wrongly identified the presence of very rare genetic variants in the majority of cases.

Experts warned that some British women have even booked mastectomy surgery after the home kits wrongly indicated they had a gene which significantly increases the risk of breast cancer.

Common genetic test often wrong when identifying rare disease-causing variants such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, study says A genetic test used to detect common traits many people share is not reliable in identifying rare disease-causing variations, such as those that can predict breast and ovarian cancer, a new study has found. The SNP test, which stands for “single nucleotide polymorphism,” is used by direct-to-consumer DNA and ancestry companies to identify common traits such as eye color, height and proclivity toward cheek dimples and dandruff, to name a few. But when SNP tests are applied to ...