A recent study done at the Erasmus
University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, revealed that DNA can
be used to predict taller-than-average adult height. Previous research has
linked DNA variants to normal height differences, 180 of these variants were
used to test 800 extremely tall adults and over 9,000 normal-height
differences. Their findings showed that “over 90 percent of these DNA variants
showed a height effect in the tall people, and for over 40 percent this effect
was statistically significant.” DNA-based predictions for height could be
beneficial for the medical community by allowing for the detection of certain
growth diseases in children. The field of Forensics could also benefit from
this research by using height genetics to predict a potential suspect of a
crime. One issue that should be noted about this method is that the accuracy is
less than that of other DNA-based predictions for eyes, hair color, age, ect.
What do you think about this research? Do you think there are any biases
associated with using DNA to predict physical characteristics of individuals?
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2013/11/20/predicting_human_body_height_from_dna.html
I think this research could be helpful in Forensics and for helping determine any growth problems of a child. If they were able to develop a way for this process to be more accurate, finding growth problems in young children can be found early on and possibly help better that child's life. With Forensics this process cold be great to help give even more information about the person who committed a crime.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize you could use DNA to predict eye or hair color. Learn something new everyday! I think using DNA to predict the height of a suspect in a crime would be very helpful, provided they are not already in the system. I feel like individuals could use this researcher to gain information about their children. It wouldn't help with the idea of "designer children" but could influence how parents raise their children. If you knew your kid was going to be above average in height would you focus the activities they get involved in on that? Most people probably wouldn't, but there are those that might.
ReplyDeleteYeah Dr. Hughes-Stamm has done a little bit of research in this field! I didn't know about this until last semester! It is really neat, but very controversial!! Hopefully we can learn a little more about it in Forensic Biology next semester! :)
DeleteIt seems cool to have so many screenings for different characteristics for the child, but I have many reservations about it. For the field of forensics, I feel like this technique may be more reasonable and applicable.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of using DNA to reconstruct physical appearance sounds intriguing, but then you get into the questions of ethics. Issues such as invasion of privacy and racial bias or profiling need to be addressed. Plus the accuracy seems not that great with these predictions. This study only involved unusually tall subjects and sounds more applicable for use in the medical field and growth disorders.
ReplyDelete