http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/1104/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31035/ 2011-09-01T00:00:00Z Approximately 1.1 billion people currently live in countries where consanguineous marriages are customary, and among them one in every three marriages is between cousins. Opinions diverge between those warning of the possible health risks to offspring and others who highlight the social benefits of consanguineous marriages. A consanguinity study group of international experts and counselors met at the Geneva International Consanguinity Workshop from May 3 2010, to May 7, 2010, to discuss the known and presumptive risks and benefits of close kin marriages and to identify important future areas for research on consanguinity. The group highlighted the importance of evidence-based counseling recommendations for consanguineous marriages and of undertaking both genomic and social research in defining the various influences and outcomes of consanguinity. Technological advances in rapid high-throughput genome sequencing and for the identification of copy number variants by comparative genomic hybridization offer a significant opportunity to identify genotype-phenotype correlations focusing on autozygosity, the hallmark of consanguinity. The ongoing strong preferential culture of close kin marriages in many societies, and among migrant communities in Western countries, merits an equivalently detailed assessment of the social and genetic benefits of consanguinity in future studies. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/5803/ 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z Several families with an early-onset form of familial Alzheimer's disease have been found to harbour mutations at a specific codon (717) of the gene for the beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) on chromosome 21. We now report, a novel base mutation in the same exon of the APP gene which co-segregates in one family with presenile dementia and cerebral haemorrhage due to cerebral amyloid angiopathy. The mutation results in the substitution of alanine into glycine at codon 692. These results suggest that the clinically distinct entities, presenile dementia and cerebral amyloid angiopathy, can be caused by the same mutation in the APP gene. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/2363/ 1983-01-01T00:00:00Z We have used restriction endonuclease mapping to study a deletion involving the beta-globin gene cluster in a Mexican-American family with gamma delta beta-thalassemia. Analysis of DNA polymorphisms demonstrated deletion of the beta-globin gene from the affected chromosome. Using a DNA fragment that maps greater than 40 kilobases (kb) 5' to the epsilon-gene as a probe, reduced amounts of normal fragments were found in the DNA of affected family members. Similar analysis using radiolabeled DNA fragments located 3' to the beta-globin cluster has shown that the deletion extends more than 17 kb 3' to the beta-gene, but terminates before the 3' endpoint of the Ghanian HPFH deletion. Hence, this gamma delta beta-thalassemia deletion eliminates over 105 kb of DNA and is the first report of a deletion of the entire beta-globin gene cluster.