Any aspiring or established molecular biologist interested in pursuing this connection further, please contact me - I have plans for experimental approaches to investigate this phenomenon!
The following paragraphs are from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Epigenetics Program that focuses on disease that's not inherited from one's parents - Disease Karma, if you will. Is this indeed the "Great Karmic Database in the Sky"? (refer to my blog "God and the Database" )
The overall hypothesis is that the origins of health and susceptibility to disease are, in part, the result of epigenetic regulation of the genetic blueprint. Specifically, epigenetic mechanisms that control stem cell differentiation and organogenesis contribute to the biological response to endogenous and exogenous forms of stimuli that result in disease."
Here is a link to a more complete treatment of the subject.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK45788/#epi_sci_bkgrd.About_Epigenetics
And in today's (September 5, 2012) news:
With ENCODE, said Stamatoyannopoulos, "we're exposing previously hidden connections between diseases." ENCODE has also shown that a gene is not the simple stretch of DNA that makes a protein, as students are taught. Instead, the functional unit is an amalgam of sequences from both strands of the double helix, interleaved like two halves of a deck of cards in the hands of a Vegas dealer.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/05/usa-health-junk-dna-idINL2E8JUC4H20120905
Nature is making all of the ENCODE research freely available, at http://www.nature.com/encode/ and through an iPad app.
A Few More references :
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/05/health/encode-human-genome/index.html
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-05/genetic-circuitry-found-that-may-help-target-complex-diseases
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/07/babys-dna-constructed-before-birth/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/16/bee-study-behaviour?newsfeed=true
And an interesting Blog along similar lines:
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4276&p=206729#p206729
Note: all pictures are copyright J Devasundaram. Do not use without permission and attribution.
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