Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Researchers have found another gene that may keep you from fitting in your jeans. You can't blame this gene, named FTO, for all the extra inches. But British scientists discovered that people who carry two copies of a variation of the FTO gene weighed, on average, 7 pounds more than people who lack it. Unlike other genes thought to be involved with appetite or calorie burning, scientists have no idea yet what FTO is supposed to do. But research published in Friday's edition of the journal Science shows strong evidence of a link. Using blood samples provided by...

An Icelandic genetics company says it has detected a version of a gene that more than triples the risk of heart attacks in African-Americans, a finding that is likely to sharpen the debate about the merits of race-based medicine. The company, DeCode Genetics, first found the variant gene among Icelanders and then looked for it in three American populations, in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Atlanta. Among Americans of European ancestry, the variant is quite common, but it causes only a small increase in risk, about 16 percent. But among African-Americans, while the variant gene was found in only 6 percent of...