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February 10, 2004
Fast Cheap Way To Silence Genes
People with Huntington's Disease have one gene that makes a defective huntingtin protein and another gene that makes a 'good' huntington protein.
Suppose gene therapy could 'silence' (or stop) the one gene from creating the defective huntingtin protein? Scientists are working on this and other paths to treat Huntington's Disease with gene therapy. The cure is coming, but research takes time. But researchers are quickly getting better at speeding up research. Here's the latest, courtesy of Future Pundit:
"The group tested their approach by creating a handful of siRNA molecules to genetically disable three known genes. In each case, their technique generated siRNA that effectively blocked the gene in question."
"Wehrman said this technique of creating siRNA molecule libraries could be widely used to find genes that, when disabled, cause cells to become cancerous or alter how the cells respond to different drugs. These genes could then become potential targets for drugs to treat disease."
and
"Here is yet another reason why the rate of advance in biological research is accelerating. Better tools and techniques speed the rate at which experiments can be done and increase the amount of information that can be collected."
Read the Stanford Press Release here.
Posted by Dave at February 10, 2004 07:27 PM
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