There are always some kinds of records that you just can’t believe. These cases are outside the borders of rational thinking. The youngest mother was a 5 year old Peruvian girl. I thought that it’s just an other urban legend, but the images and the sources convinced me. Ok, a five year old girl is not matured enough to give birth to a child. The absence of puberty, menstrual cycle, proper development of the uterus makes it impossible, but:

Before publishing the first issue of Gene Genie, a blog carnival on genes, I list here the most interesting announcements and findings on genes from the past day.

• The Diabetes Genetics Initiative (The Biotech Weblog)
  

The Broad Institute, Lund University and Novartis have announced the completion of a genome-wide map of genes related to type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders. (Read more at the Diabetes Genetics Initiative database)

Recently, I’ve found several blogposts and papers writing about the future of medical journalism, the problem of open access. I’d like to spread the word about a new system in medical journalism where the scientific community decides about the fate of a submitted article. First, some words about the impact factor. Sciencesque had an interesing post about how impact factor is calculated and why we should follow the newly proposed system of PLos One.

After the hard days of the Week of Science, here are some funny and interesting links, sites. You should take a break with these before I start to write serious, gene-maniac posts again. And let's submit your articles, Gene Genie is dute to be published in 5 days!

• What color eyes would your children have?
  
• What is this medical word? A list of the most often misunderstood medical words.
• DNA Rainbow

This picture shows details of chromosome 1. The green points represent adenine, the red thymine, the white guanine and the blue cytosine.

For women older than 35, amniocentesis is usually recommended. But the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) is now presenting a new guideline system:

All women should have access to blood tests and ultrasounds and that the results of such measures should guide the decision for more invasive screening, such as amniocentesis.

A public photo from Flickr

As I plan to become a clinical geneticist, I should write more often about genetic conditions. But I don't want to duplicate the articles of Wikipedia, my aim is to provide useful sources of information. Pompe disease is a rare disorder caused by the deficiency of the acid alpha-glucosidase enzyme. It's inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. The patients can't break down glycogen. According to the Wiki article:

It is the only glycogen storage disease with a defect in lysosomal metabolism, and was the first glycogen storage disease to be identified—in 1932. The build-up of glycogen causes progressive muscle weakness (myopathy) throughout the body and affects various body tissues, particularly in the heart, skeletal muscles, liver and nervous system.

Based on Timothy Erickson's thoughts, I decided to start a new blog carnival on genes and gene-related diseases. Our plan is to cover the whole genome before 2082 (it means 14-15 genes every two weeks).

Please take a look at the "official" page of the carnival. (Suggestions are most welcome!)

The first issue will be hosted by Scienceroll on the 17th of February. The second will be hosted by Sciencesque two weeks later. Let me know if you would like to host one!

I planned to make a good start for Gene Genie but my first gene related post is about a farewell. Sonic Hedgehog, one of the most famous genes, will lose his name. According to the Discover article: