2012 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript

This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2012. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.

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Is there any danger in receiving a blood transfusion from blood that might contain a genetic defect?
     Heather A. Junkins, M.S.: I am a Scientific Program Analyst in the Office of Population Genomics on a variety of projects that aim to promote the application of genomic technologies to population-based studies.? Included in the portfolio are projects that develop standard phenotype and exposure measures for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and using well-characterized cohorts to follow-up on putative casual variants.? I am also a curator for the NHGRI GWAS Catalog. Good question. In blood transfusions you are mostly receiving red blood cells which do not have nuclei (the "brain" of the cell) and cannot share genetic materials. Here is a good website for my information about blood transfusions: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/blood/
Lehigh Carbon Community College in PA (Higher Education student)

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