Disease and Ethnicity
Dr. Ed McCabe, Chief of the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, talks about the link between certain genetic disorders and ethnicity. He focuses on Tay-Sachs disease, which shows up most commonly among Ashkenazi Jews and French Canadians of southeas...
Breaking Addictions
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about efforts to determine, "...whether or not there is a genetic basis for why some people find it easy to stop smoking, and other people find it...
Causes of Mental Retardation
Dr. Ed McCabe, Chief of the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, talks about prenatal tests that can be done to test for signs of mental retardation in the fetus. "Down's Syndrome is certainly one that we're very aware of and that we know how to test...
Family's Struggle, A
Dr. Ed McCabe, Chief of the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, talks about the challenges faced by a Colorado family in which two children were afflicted by a serious genetic disorder.
Alcoholism and Genetics
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, observes that alcoholism, "...clearly has some genetic basis because, identical twins, even if they're raised apart, are very similar for this." Dr. Ham...
Purposes of Genetic Testing
Dr. Ed McCabe, Chief of the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, explains that genetic testing is done to facilitate the diagnosis of genetic diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Such testing can be invaluable in encouraging individuals ...
Genetic Testing Options
Dr. Ed McCabe, Chief of the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, talks about the process he follows when a couple comes to him without a known history of disease or genetic red flags. Dr. McCabe explains that he begins with a very detailed family his...
Genetics and evolution
What does genetic diversity mean, and what is its relationship to evolution? This video answers that intriguing question as it summarizes the theory of natural selection and describes the process of trait inheritance. Advances stemming from the Huma...
The Code: Genetic Screening Prior to and During Pregnancy
Because of their family history some couples request screening for recessive genetic diseases prior to conceiving a child. If they are already pregnant, and both parents turn out to be carriers for diseases such as Tay Sachs of Sickle Cell, tests ca...
The Code: The Genetic Blueprint
Every cell of the human body carries 23 pairs of chromosomes. The chemical substance within each chromosome--the DNA--contains hundreds, sometimes thousands of different genes, depending on the size of the chromosome. Genes direct the formation of t...