Aussie scientists Cure inherited disease

New testing has shown that Australian scientists have cured a family of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a disease that causes heart rhythm disorders. "The research, led by a team from Sydney's Victor Chang Cardiac Institute and St Vincent's Hospital, has been published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology." Forty-two members of a family who had DCM were screened by doctors established connections in mutated segments of their DNA.

The family members were given drugs that would reverse the consequences of the Gene defect. Normally, treatment of DCM slows the progress but eventually the disease gets to a point where it has gone to far & the only option is a heart transplant. New research and decreasing costs of gene sequencing, along with easier applications to do it, have allowed for this break through. "If you do understand what the underlying gene defect is, there's a possibility that you can identify a specific drug that will work and will work very effectively."



This is another great example of science and technology combining to better mankind. Being that we are talking about sequencing & markers in class right now, I saw this article as a real life example of how far sciences understanding has come along. I expect this trend of curing diseases to become much more prevalent in the scientific community.