Biohacking the Amish : The DNA Sequencer and The Hitching Post

The old order Amish located in Lancaster County Pennsylvania have been plagued with a number of genetic disorders. Today you will find a rather bizarre combination of a hitching post (the kind use for a horse and buggy) in front of a facility that has a state of the art Ion Torrent DNA sequencer. The name of this facility is “The Clinic for Special Children” and the doctors go about solving the issues each child is challenged with.
It is easy to become confused about the technologies the Amish welcome into their community and the forms that they choose not to utilize. They have united to support this clinic and it’s advanced testing for the last thirty years as it is seen as bringing people together in “fellowship”. The insulated population works in favor of the clinic because there is much less genetic variation and the number of mutations to focus on are small.
The Amish in Lancaster County started with a small founding population and continued to marry one another for generations within their community. The result has been a disturbing amount of rare diseases. This pediatric practice has learned how to test on a molecular basis for 121 heritable genetic diseases common in the populations they serve. The annual discovery rate is about 5 – 15 new genetic diseases a year at this clinic. The Amish have unusually high rates and unusual forms of dwarfism, hearing issues, retina detachment, angelman syndrome and metabolic disorders.
The Clinic for Special Children was started in 1989 by Holmes Morton. A well timed article in The Wall Street Journal provided the support in terms of donations to get his project off the ground. Hewlett-Packard sent over some necessary equipment and hundreds of thousands dollars came in from readers when they heard about a Clinic being raised within Horse and Buggy distance of a well establish Amish community.
articles/papers:


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.