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July 09, 2005
Amish Involved In Genetic Research
The Toronto Globe and Mail has a fascinating article on the Amish and their involvement with genetic research.
"It's weird and it's wonderful," said Terry Sharrer, medical curator of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. "I have never seen anything like this."The children's clinic is the creation and life's work of Dr. Holmes Morton and his wife Caroline. The Harvard-educated couple surprised colleagues and friends in 1987 when they announced they were giving up prestigious urban posts in Philadelphia, packing up the family and starting a new life among the Amish and Mennonite religious sects.
It's a place where the laundry of plain clothes flaps in the breeze and barefoot children in smocks and straw hats run around homes shared and passed down by multiple generations. Road signs warn drivers to share the road with the horses and buggies.
Morton hasn't regretted the move.
"We discover a new gene almost weekly," he said.
Isolated populations with homogenous genes such as the Amish in central Pennsylvania, the Ashkenazi Jews and Indian tribes offer genetic researchers unparalleled insight into disease and genetics.
Posted by Dave at July 9, 2005 06:32 AM
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