Genetic Optimism: Framing Genes and MentalIllness in the News

Over the past two decades the pace andspecificity of discoveries associating geneticswith mental illness has accelerated, which isreflected in an increase in news coverage aboutthe genetics of mental disorder. The newsmedia is a major source of public understandingof genetics and a strong influence on publicdiscourse. This paper examines the newscoverage of genetics and mental illness (i.e.,bipolar illness and schizophrenia) over a 25year period, emphasizing the peak period of1987–1994. Using a sample of 110 news storiesfrom 5 major American newspapers and 3 newsmagazines, we identify the frame of ``geneticoptimism' which dominated the reporting ofgenetics and mental illness beginning in themid-1980s. The structure of the frame iscomprised of 3 elements: a gene for thedisorder exists; it will be found; and it willbe good. New discoveries of genes wereannounced with great fanfare, but the mostpromising claims could not be replicated orwere retracted in short order. Despite thesedisconfirmations, genetic optimism persisted insubsequent news stories. While the scientificaccuracy of the gene stories is high, thegenetic optimism frame distorts some of thefindings, misrepresents and reifies the impactof genes on mental disorder, and leaves nospace for critics or an examination ofpotential negative impacts. The stances ofreporters, scientists and editors may all indifferent ways contribute to the perpetuationof genetic optimism. Genetic optimism presentsan overly sanguine picture of the state ofgenetics; as we enter the genetic age it isimportant to balance the extraneous ``hype andhope' contained in news stories of genetics andmental illness.     

What’s not in the news headlines or titles of Alzheimer disease articles? #InMice

There is increasing scrutiny around how science is communicated to the public. For instance, a Twitter account @justsaysinmice (with 70.4K followers in January 2021) was created to call attention to news headlines that omit that mice, not humans, are the ones for whom the study findings apply. This is the case of many headlines reporting on Alzheimer disease (AD) research. AD is characterized by a degeneration of the human brain, loss of cognition, and behavioral changes, for which no treatment is available. Around 200 rodent models have been developed to study AD, even though AD is an exclusively human condition that does not occur naturally in other species and appears impervious to reproduction in artificial animal models, an information not always disclosed. It is not known what prompts writers of news stories to either omit or acknowledge, in the story’s headlines, that the study was done in mice and not in humans. Here, we raised the hypothesis that how science is reported by scientists plays a role on the news reporting. To test this hypothesis, we investigated whether an association exists between articles’ titles and news’ headlines regarding the omission, or not, of mice. To this end, we analyzed a sample of 623 open-access scientific papers indexed in PubMed in 2018 and 2019 that used mice either as models or as the biological source for experimental studies in AD research. We found a significant association (p < 0.01) between articles’ titles and news stories’ headlines, revealing that when authors omit the species in the paper’s title, writers of news stories tend to follow suit. We also found that papers not mentioning mice in their titles are more newsworthy and significantly more tweeted than papers that do. Our study shows that science reporting may affect media reporting and asks for changes in the way we report about findings obtained with animal models used to study human diseases.

This study reveals that when scientists omit from the papers’ title that research findings were obtained using mice, as opposed to humans, the media tend to replicate the trend by omitting the use of mice from the news stories headlines that report on these papers, thereby perpetuating the misleading omission.     

Managing the boundaries between maverick cloners and mainstream scientists: the life cycle of a news event in a contested field

Abstract

In January 2004, the ‘maverick cloner’, Dr Panos Zavos called a press conference in London to announce that he had implanted a freshly cloned human embryo in the womb of an infertile woman. Reports of this press conference gained prominent coverage in the national newspapers the following day and led television bulletins that evening. This article discusses the ways in which expertise was claimed by or attributed to Dr Zavos and other key media sources. It argues that three key boundaries were demarcated in the coverage as journalists framed the stories in terms provided by Zavos's antagonists, ‘mainstream scientists’. It also discusses the engagement in tactics of news management by an organised grouping of UK scientists who attempted to shape the terrain of news coverage on the subject of cloning. The question of the extent to which interested scientists should be able to set the terms of media debate is explored.     

新西兰生物科技及产业现状及特点

新西兰生物产业的规模并不十分引人注目,但却是新西兰经济中不可忽视的组成部分,其生物科技方面的优势领域主要是农业生物技术和生物医学两方面,例如大型动植物、生物安全、环境保护、神经科学、心血管疾病、结核与哮喘、糖尿病和癌症等研究领域。新西兰政府十分重视生物科技和产业的发展,在其2002年颁布的《创新增长框架》计划中,将生物技术列为未来的三大经济增长支柱之一,将加大对生物科技和产业的投入作为新西兰向高技术经济转型的重要举措。     

Language and values in the human cloning debate: a web-based survey of scientists and christian fundamentalist pastors

Over the last seven years, a major debate has arisen over whether human cloning should remain legal in the United States. Given that this may be the ‘first real global and simultaneous news story on biotechnology’ (Einsiedel et al., 2002, p. 313), nations around the world have struggled with the implications of this newly viable scientific technology, which is often also referred to as somatic cell nuclear transfer. Since the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997, and with increasing media attention paid to the likelihood of a successful human reproductive clone coupled with research suggesting the medical potential of therapeutic cloning in humans, members of the scientific community and Christian fundamentalist leaders have become increasingly vocal in the debate over U.S. policy decisions regarding human cloning (Wilmut, 2000). Yet despite a surfeit of public opinion polls and widespread opining in the news media on the topic of human cloning, there have been no empirical studies comparing the views of scientists and Christian fundamentalists in this debate (see Evans, 2002a for a recent study of opinion polls assessing religion and attitudes toward cloning).

In order to further investigate the values that underlie scientists' and Christian fundamentalist leader's understanding of human cloning, as well as their differential use of language in communicating about this issue, we conducted an open-ended, exploratory survey of practicing scientists in the field of molecular biology and Christian fundamentalist pastors. We then analyzed the responses from this survey using qualitative discourse analysis. While this was not necessarily a representative sample (in quantitative terms, see Gaskell & Bauer, 2000) of each of the groups and the response rate was limited, this approach was informative in identifying both commonalities between the two groups, such as a focus on ethical concerns about reproductive cloning and the use of scientific terminology, as well as significant differences including concerns over ‘playing God’ for the Christian pastors, focus on therapeutic cloning by scientists, and subtle but informative differences between the two groups in their use of scientific terminology and their interpretations of human cloning as scientific progress.     

宿主遗传因素对肠道菌群的影响

随着高通量测序技术的发展,人们逐渐认识到肠道菌群与人类的健康和疾病密切相关,并发现肠道菌群受很多因素的影响。除了研究传统饮食和药物对肠道菌群的改变外,近年来,科学家也开始注重遗传因素在塑造肠道菌群中的作用。遗传因素可决定宿主的饮食偏好、肠道的生理结构、肠道屏障功能和免疫功能等,而这些都直接与肠道菌群相互作用,参与肠道微生态平衡的构建和稳定。因此,在研究肠道菌群与疾病发生相关性的过程中也需要考虑遗传因素的重要性。随着基因敲除、无菌小鼠和菌群移植等实验技术的革新,以及主成分分析、数量性状基因座和全基因组关联性分析等大数据分析手段的提高,科学家能够深入研究宿主遗传基因与肠道菌群之间的关联性,从而证明宿主遗传基因在塑造肠道微生态的过程中具有重要作用。本文将首先简述肠道菌群与疾病发生之间可能存在的联系,然后从多方面综述遗传因素对肠道菌群的影响及主要的研究进展,从而为今后该领域的深入研究提供重要的指导,也为今后预防和治疗疾病提供新思路和新方法。     

The past,present and future of phycology in China

Algae have been part of Chinese life for thousands of years. They are widely used as food and have been cited in Chinese literature as early as 2500 years ago. However, formal taxonomic studies on Chinese algae were initiated by foreign scientists only about 200 years ago, and by Chinese phycologists only about 90 years ago. This paper summarizes the history of modern phycological studies on Chinese algae and provides an overview of the achievements of phycological studies by Chinese scientists, especially on algal taxonomy, morphology, genetics, ecology and environmental research, physiology, biotechnology, algal culture, applied phycology and space phycology, in the last century. Recent development in phycological research focuses on algal floristic and molecular systematics, algal molecular biotechnology, applied phycology including micro and macroalgal cultivation and algal product development, and the roles of algae in environmental pollution control. These areas will also be the main focuses of Chinese phycological research in the foreseeable future.     

低能离子束生物技术的应用

自从我国科学家发现离子注入生物学效应后,低能离子束生物技术的研究就在我国率先兴起。随后,越来越多的科学家基于低能离子与生物体之间存在的能量沉积、动量传递、质量沉积及电荷中和与交换的相互作用,对生物体内的遗传物质进行加工、修饰、重组,开辟了农作物和微生物等遗传改良及转基因的新方法。本文简要介绍了低能离子束生物技术产生的背景、低能离子束与生物体之间相互作用的机理和特点以及目前低能离子束在诱变育种和转基因等生物技术领域的研究进展,并展望了离子束技术在藻类基因工程方面的发展潜力。     

Biotechnology,people and markets

In assessing the likely demand for biotechnology products it is not sufficient just to look at what is happening in firms and their immediate market environment. There is no one 'market' for biotechnology products: there are differences between sectors and between countries. You have instead to look at the institutional contexts of the biotechnology product's development. This paper reviews work which has been carried out by social scientists, especially those using 'social shaping' approaches, on the development of new products based on advances in biotechnology and on the creation of markets to go with these products. It examines work on public attitudes to the exploitation of the technology, focusing especially on the issue of social inclusion and exclusion and how biotechnology might make exclusion more likely. It concludes by considering what current differences in public attitudes to the development of some biotechnology-based products might mean for the development of markets for those products in the UK.     

‘Disease,Disaster and Despair’? The Presentation of Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries on Australian Television

Background

In high-income nations mainstream television news remains an important source of information about both general health issues and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, research on news coverage of health in LMICs is scarce.

Principal Findings

The present paper examines the general features of Australian television coverage of LMIC health issues, testing the hypotheses that this coverage conforms to the general patterns of foreign news reporting in high-income countries and, in particular, that LMIC health coverage will largely reflect Australian interests. We analysed relevant items from May 2005 – December 2009 from the largest health-related television dataset of its kind, classifying each story on the basis of the region(s) it covered, principal content relating to health in LMICs and the presence of an Australian reference point. LMICs that are culturally proximate and politically significant to Australia had higher levels of reportage than more distant and unengaged nations. Items concerning communicable diseases, injury and aspects of child health generally consonant with ‘disease, disaster and despair’ news frames predominated, with relatively little emphasis given to chronic diseases which are increasingly prevalent in many LMICs. Forty-two percent of LMIC stories had explicit Australian content, such as imported medical expertise or health risk to Australians in LMICs.

Significance

Media consumers'' perceptions of disease burdens in LMICs and of these nations'' capacity to identify and manage their own health priorities may be distorted by the major news emphasis on exotic disease, disaster and despair stories. Such perceptions may inhibit the development of appropriate policy emphases in high-income countries. In this context, non-government organisations concerned with international development may find it more difficult to strike a balance between crises and enduring issues in their health programming and fundraising efforts.     

Research scientists surveyed on ethical issues in genetic medicine: a comparison of attitudes of US and European researchers

Abstract

This paper compares the attitudes of European and US scientists engaged in human genetics research about some of the ethical issues raised by recent advances in genetic testing, by the increasing likelihood of subsequent genetic therapies, and by hovering threats to the privacy of those tested in the face of concerns raised by individual and institutional third parties. Surveys of both groups indicate strong and fairly uniform support for attempts to discern and cure serious diseases or disorders and decisions to terminate pregnancies in which fetuses have serious genetic defects. But the data also indicate a number of issues where European and US respondents disagree and where that disagreement is characterised by a more cautious approach on the part of the European scientists. These data should provide a foundation for subsequent reflection and discussion within the scientific communities as well as within the society at large.     

Characteristics of Medical Research News Reported on Front Pages of Newspapers

Background

The placement of medical research news on a newspaper''s front page is intended to gain the public''s attention, so it is important to understand the source of the news in terms of research maturity and evidence level.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We searched LexisNexis to identify medical research reported on front pages of major newspapers published from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2002. We used MEDLINE and Google Scholar to find journal articles corresponding to the research, and determined their evidence level.Of 734 front-page medical research stories identified, 417 (57%) referred to mature research published in peer-reviewed journals. The remaining 317 stories referred to preliminary findings presented at scientific or press meetings; 144 (45%) of those stories mentioned studies that later matured (i.e. were published in journals within 3 years after news coverage). The evidence-level distribution of the 515 journal articles quoted in news stories reporting on mature research (3% level I, 21% level II, 42% level III, 4% level IV, and 31% level V) differed from that of the 170 reports of preliminary research that later matured (1%, 19%, 35%, 12%, and 33%, respectively; chi-square test, P = .0009). No news stories indicated evidence level. Fewer than 1 in 5 news stories reporting preliminary findings acknowledged the preliminary nature of their content.

Conclusions/Significance

Only 57% of front-page stories reporting on medical research are based on mature research, which tends to have a higher evidence level than research with preliminary findings. Medical research news should be clearly referenced and state the evidence level and limitations to inform the public of the maturity and quality of the source.     

“Like Throwing a Bowling Ball at a Battle Ship” Audience Responses to Australian News Stories about Alcohol Pricing and Promotion Policies: A Qualitative Focus Group Study

Introduction

Policies affecting alcohol’s price and promotion are effective measures to reduce harms. Yet policies targeting populations are unpopular with the public, whose views can be influenced by news framings of policy narratives. In Australia, alcohol taxation receives high news coverage, while advertising restrictions have not until recently, and narratives are highly contested for each. However, research specifically examining how audiences respond to such news stories is scant. We sought to explore audience understanding of news reports about two alcohol policy proposals.

Method

From June to August 2012, 46 participants were recruited for 8 focus groups in age-brackets of young people aged 18–25 years, parents of young people, and adults aged 25 or older. Groups were split by education. Participants were asked their prior knowledge of alcohol policies, before watching and discussing four news stories about alcohol taxation and advertising.

Results

Participants were clear that alcohol poses problems, yet thought policy solutions were ineffective in a drinking culture they viewed as unamenable to change and unaffected by alcohol’s price or promotion. Without knowledge of its actual effect on consumption, they cited the 2008 alcopops tax as a policy failure, blaming cheaper substitution. Participants had low knowledge of advertising restrictions, yet were concerned about underage exposure. They offered conditional support for restrictions, while doubting its effectiveness. There was marked distrust of statistics and news actors in broadcasts, yet discussions matched previous research findings.

Conclusions

News coverage has resulted in strong audience understanding of alcohol related problems but framed solutions have not always provided clear messages, despite audience support for policies. Future advocacy will need to continue recent moves to address the links between alcohol’s price and promotion with the drinking culture, as well as facilitate understandings of how this culture is amenable to change through the use of evidence-based policies.     

When Medical News Comes from Press Releases—A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat

The media have a key role in communicating advances in medicine to the general public, yet the accuracy of medical journalism is an under-researched area. This project adapted an established monitoring instrument to analyse all identified news reports (n = 312) on a single medical research paper: a meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Cancer which showed a modest link between processed meat consumption and pancreatic cancer. Our most significant finding was that three sources (the journal press release, a story on the BBC News website and a story appearing on the ‘NHS Choices’ website) appeared to account for the content of over 85% of the news stories which covered the meta analysis, with many of them being verbatim or moderately edited copies and most not citing their source. The quality of these 3 primary sources varied from excellent (NHS Choices, 10 of 11 criteria addressed) to weak (journal press release, 5 of 11 criteria addressed), and this variance was reflected in the accuracy of stories derived from them. Some of the methods used in the original meta-analysis, and a proposed mechanistic explanation for the findings, were challenged in a subsequent commentary also published in the British Journal of Cancer, but this discourse was poorly reflected in the media coverage of the story.     

Genetics of osteoarticular disorders,Florence, Italy, 22-23 February 2002

Osteoporosis (OP) and osteoarthritis (OA), the two most common age-related chronic disorders of articular joints and skeleton, represent a major public health problem in most developed countries. They are influenced by environmental factors and exhibit a strong genetic component. Large population studies clearly show their inverse relationship; therefore, an accurate analysis of the genetic bases of one of these two diseases may provide data of interest for the other disorder. The discovery of risk and protective genes for OP and OA promises to revolutionize strategies for diagnosing and treating these disorders. The primary goal of this symposium was to bring together scientists and clinicians working on OP and OA in order to identify the most promising and collaborative approaches for the coming decade. This meeting put into focus the importance of an adequate genetic approach to several areas of research: the search for the genetic determinants underlying new susceptibilities, the optimization of previously acquired data; the establishment of correlations between genetic polymorphism and functional variants, and gene-gene and gene-environment interactions (particularly those between genes and nutrients). An adequate genetic approach is also essential with regard to determining more selective criteria for phenotypic definition of familial OP, in order to obtain more homogeneous and statistically powerful family-based studies. The symposium concluded with an interesting overview of the future perspectives offered by DNA microarray technologies for identifying novel candidate genes, for developing proteomics and bioinformatics analyses and for designing low-cost clinical trials.     

Lentiviral vectors

The delivery of genetic material to mammalian cells has a great importance for modern fundamental biology, biomedicine, biotechnology, agriculture and veterinary medicine. The development of new efficient techniques of gene transfer to human cells has led to the establishment of gene therapy, a novel type of treatment targeting severe metabolic disorders, some viral infections, including HIV, autoimmune diseases and genetic defects causing cancer. This review summarizes the achievements in lentiviral-mediated gene transfer, a powerful tool for use in human gene therapy and transgenic research, with a special focus on the genome structure and life cycle of lentiviruses, as well as on the design and safety aspects of lentiviral vector systems.     

粪菌移植研究的文献计量学和可视化分析

【背景】粪菌移植是近年医学领域研究的热点,不但能够治疗消化系统疾病,而且在神经及精神系统、心血管系统相关疾病的治疗中均有不错的疗效,有着广阔的应用前景。【目的】掌握国内外粪菌移植的研究现状、热点及发展趋势,为相关领域科研工作者的研究提供参考。【方法】基于Web of Science核心数据库,通过CiteSpace对2011-2021年的年度发文量、作者、国家、期刊、被引情况和关键词等进行可视化分析。【结果】筛选后共纳入4 905篇文献,目前全球粪菌移植研究的文献数量呈快速增长趋势;美国和中国是发文量最多的国家。中国学者的总发文量虽然位居世界第二,但中心度和篇均被引频次较低,说明受关注程度及学术影响力不足,在发文质量上还有待提高;Gastroenterology是国内外学者发文量最多的期刊,Frontiers in Microbiology是中国学者发文量最多的期刊;粪菌移植呈现出多学科交叉的发展特点;粪菌移植目前的研究热点主要与肠内疾病(炎症性肠病、艰难梭菌感染)和肠外疾病(如抑郁、冠状动脉粥样硬化等)有关;粪菌移植在未成年人中的应用、对胰岛素敏感度的影响、测序技术在肠道菌群的应用及...     

Focus: Personalized Medicine: Crowdfunding for Personalized Medicine Research

Given the current funding situation of the National Institutes of Health, getting funding for rare disease research is extremely difficult. In light of the enormous potential for research in the rare diseases and the scarcity of research funding, we provide a case study of a novel successful crowdfunding approach at a non-profit organization called Rare Genomics Institute. We partner with biotechnology companies willing to donate their products, such as mouse models, gene editing software, and sequencing services, for which researchers can apply. First, we find that personal stories can be powerful tools to seek funding from sympathetic donors who do not have the same rational considerations of impact and profit. Second, for foundations facing funding restrictions, company donations can be a valuable tool in addition to crowdfunding. Third, rare disease research is particularly rewarding for scientists as they proceed to be pioneers in the field during their academic careers. Overall, by connecting donors, foundations, researchers, and patients, crowdfunding has become a powerful alternative funding mechanism for personalized medicine.     

Safe and Sound? Scientists’ Understandings of Public Engagement in Emerging Biotechnologies

Science communication is a widely debated issue, particularly in the field of biotechnology. However, the views on the interface between science and society held by scientists who work in the field of emerging biotechnologies are currently insufficiently explored. Therefore filling this gap is one of the urgent desiderata in the further development of a dialogue-oriented model of science-public interaction. Against this background, this article addresses two main questions: (1) How do the persons who work in the field of science perceive the public and its involvement in science? (2) What preferred modes of communication are stressed by those scientists? This research is based on a set of interviews with full professors from the field of biotechnology with a special focus on synthetic biology. The results show that scientists perceive the public as holding a primarily risk-focused view of science. On the one hand, different forms of science communication are thereby either seen as a chance to improve the public acceptance of science in general and one field of research in particular. On the other hand, the exchange with the public is seen as a duty because the whole of society is affected by scientific innovation. Yet, some of the stakeholders’ views discussed here conflict with debates on public engagement in technological innovation.