e to accomplish many things, one of which is gene therapy. Gene therapy is a new approach to treating diseases by changing a persons genes. Not only does gene therapy hope to be used to cure genetic diseases, but there are also promises of disease prevention. There are two types of gene therapy somatic and germline. Somatic gene therapy hopes to change the gene of the patient, but this change of expression in the gene will not be passed down to the next generation. Germline gene therapy is a modification of the cells that passes change on to the next generation. Most of the work being done at this time is on somatic gene therapy.Another aspect to the discovery of the genome, which benefits gene therapy, is the ability to diagnose genetic illnesses. For example Hemochromatosis is the most common genetic illness, and also very often goes undiagnosed. Until recently, in order to diagnose Hemochromatosis one had to have a liver biopsy. Now that scientists have managed to isolate the gene for Hemochromatosis they are able to spot it using probes, a process in which small pieces of DNA are used to help locate a gene on a chromosome. With similar processes they hope to also gain the ability to test for peoples reactions to various treatments, and to eventually have the ability to eliminate diseases before they come into existence.(Cowley, Geoffrey, 2000)Recently in Current Science there was a report of the success that scientists at Johns Hopkins University had in the use of gene therapy to stop abnormal rhythms in pig hearts. The abnormal rhythms, cardiac arrhythmias are caused by either a defect in the pacemaker, cells which initiate heart muscle contraction, or by some sort of injury to the heart such as a heart attack. Gene therapy was used by sending in a virus to carry copies of a gene, which blocks reactions that speed up heart rates, into one of the pacemakers. It was found that the pigs heart rates were 20 percent lower than that of t...
