A very short post primarily to link to a recent paper by Kumar and colleagues* (full-text, at least for the moment).
The paper is a sort of 'all you ever wanted to know about coeliac / celiac disease but were afraid to ask' type piece and jolly informative in terms of what we think we know so far about the condition regarding genes, heritability, biochemistry and the like.
Just for good measure, here also are a few other links to some interesting discussions appearing in Nature recently on our gut microbiota and the Barker hypothesis. All I will say is 'all hail our gut bacteria' and onwards with the epigenetic revolution.
Happy reading!
P.S. I know I have been neglecting this blog for a few weeks and apologise. I will hopefully devote more time to it as the year goes on. In the meantime, a link to a peculiar song which has been running through my mind for a few week now.. Gotye and 'Somebody that I used to know' (UK readers might have heard this as an advert for 2Day 2012 from BBC Radio 2).
* Kumar V. et al. From genome-wide association studies to disease mechanisms: celiac disease as a model for autoimmune diseases. Seminars in Immunopathology. May 2012
DOI: 10.1007/s00281-012-0312-1