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What is unique about this particular baby is that the embryo was screened not for a true debilitating disease, but rather for a gene that could potentially be harmful later in the child’s life. The gene, called BRCA1, increases the risk of breast cancer in females by as much as seven times.
Normally zebrafish, which carry the same p53 gene as humans, can survive low doses of radiation, which causes damage to the DNA, because the gene steps in to repair that damage. But no such repair took place in zebrafish without the isoform switch, and they died after radiation exposure. The researchers said this proved that the switch played a crucial role in enabling p53 to do its repair work.
A US jury has ordered tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay $8m to the widow of a lifelong smoker who died of lung disease. The jury in Florida decided in favour of Elaine Hess, whose husband Stuart died of lung cancer in 1997 at age 55. He had smoked for 40 years. The ruling could blaze a legal trail for 8,000 similar cases in Florida.
2009-02-18
cancer smoking compensation lung cancerThe new genes identified are far more common in the population than the well-known BRCA1 and BRAC2, but carry a lower risk. Between 50% and 85% of women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. In comparison, about 14% of women with one of the new genes would develop breast cancer.
2007-05-27
cancer breast gene