| There was a flurry of emails
to the device maker (Neurosky of San Jose) - they said |
| all appeared to be working
correctly and we were observing real seizures. There
is something |
| of a world-wide genetics
grapevine, so I asked some of the (self-identified)
best and the |
| brightest on our
planet. The common conjecture in Europe and among some
American |
| researchers is that seizures
are much more prevalent than had previously been
believed. |
| The key difference is that
inexpensive devices like the hardware from Neurosky
now make it |
| possible to detect the events
[seizures] at all sorts of times and places. |
| As you may know, there are
over 700 genes in over 500 named syndromes associated
with |
| the autism spectrum alone. At
the same time, there are well over 100 genes
associated with |
| various kinds of epilepsy and
seizures. It is very important to know exactly which
autism and |
| which epilepsy one has - that
generally requires DNA testing. |
| Our Congressman is likely to
be more more aware of leukemia research results than I
am. |
| He would know that there are
already over 160 genes implicated in various syndromes
within |
| the leukemia spectrum. For
reasons poorly understood, people with many of the
variants |
| of Down Syndrome have a much
much higher chance of being afflicted with one of
several |
| types of leukemia. Again, it
is critical to understand the exact Down Syndrome and
leukemia |
| genetics so a person needs to
get DNA analysis. |
| In hopes the Assembly email
filters are not too aggressive I have attached a PDF
explaining |
| my manifest unhappiness with
the state of the DNA sequencing industry. America and |
| homo sapiens can do
better. I think a legislative boost would be
appropriate. I am not |
| optimistic that our
Congressman, despite his many skills, will be able to
motivate his fellow |
| Federal legislators. In that
event, perhaps California can take the lead. |
| |