Word: celling
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...fertilized eggs are subjected to intense DNA analysis. Only those that pass the test are implanted. Says Dr. Jeffrey Botkin, a University of Utah pediatrics professor: "Instead of aborting a fetus, you're flushing down a bunch of 16-cell embryos--which, to a lot of folks [who oppose abortion], is a lot less of a problem...
...initial goals of gene therapists were to cure relatively straightforward genetic disorders, such as Huntington's disease and sickle-cell anemia, that are caused by a single defective gene. The strategy was simple: substitute a normal gene for a faulty one. But scientists quickly realized that adding genes to cells could also impart new functions to those cells. That may lead to the genetic treatment of a host of other disorders, including heart disease and many forms of cancer...
...gene into the nucleus of a cell? The trick, researchers discovered early on, is to take advantage of the infectious power of viruses; burrowing into cells is second nature to them. A virus is nothing more than a tiny strip of DNA or RNA crammed into a protein envelope. Using the tools of molecular biology, scientists render the virus harmless by deleting some or all of its genes, splicing the therapeutic gene into the remaining genetic material and, in a laboratory Petri dish, mixing it with human cells. The altered virus, now called a carrier or vector, can deliver...
...spectacular things with cells in a laboratory dish," explains Anderson. "You can easily get the genes in, change the cell's properties and do other things that ought to enable you to treat disease successfully." That is precisely what Anderson and his colleagues did eight years ago in the first approved use of gene therapy, when they removed blood cells from a young patient, genetically altered them with a viral vector and infused them back into her bloodstream...
...Isner found a novel way around the delivery problem. Eschewing virus carriers, he fashioned a construct called "naked DNA." It consists of part of a human gene called VEG-F, which stimulates the growth of blood vessels, and includes its signal segments. These segments, Isner explains, "order the cell, once it has manufactured the gene product, to export it from the cell...