But there are only a few cases where we know the relationship of a specific mutation to a specific effect, and also only a small number of cases where an effect is determined by a single gene rather than the combined effects of hundreds or thousands of genes.
Ashleigh Griffin ( 2008 FWIS Fellow), Elizabeth Murchison ( 2009 FWIS Fellow), Araxi Urrutia ( 2007 FWIS Fellow) and Patricia Alireza ( 2009 FWIS Fellow) provided fascinating insights into their work on the behaviour of bacteria living in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients, transmissible cancers in Tasmanian Devils, human gene and genome evolution and the effects of high pressure at quantum level.
It is hoped that gene therapy will have fewer associated side effects by targeting cancer cells.
The Project ALS success could also give a big boost to the gene therapy field, which has fallen on hard times after numerous gene therapy treatments proved ineffective or caused serious side effects.
GAB2 appears to modify the effects of this better known Alzheimer's gene.
It opens up a new direction in work looking at how the gene functions as until now the focus has been on its effects on weight gain and factors such as regulating appetite.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy, discovered by French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne in 1868, accounts for 40% of the cases of muscular dystrophy in the U.S. In 1987 it became one of the first ailments linked to a defect in a particular gene, but since then the main treatments have been limited and unable to halt the disease's devastating effects.
Engineered in lab mice, this gene produced a protein (named OPG) that vastly increased bone strength and thickness-without causing any harmful side effects.
Toward this end, Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) recently bought biotech boutique Rosetta InPharmatics, which employs astrophysicists and engineers to crunch reams of gene data to spot telltale patterns that help predict if a drug will perform as promised or might have intolerable side effects.
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