The Senate this July voted unanimously to name September National Tay-Sach’s Awareness Month. The resolution was introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and co-sponsored by Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana. At this point, Tay-Sachs, a hereditary degenerative neurological disease, has no cure. The National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association, Inc., the oldest genetic disease…
One of the largest collaborative research teams ever assembled has concluded a decade-long study that may unlock the secrets behind Crohn’s disease. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases IBD Genetics Consortium and collaborating centers have identified 21 new genes that play a role in the appearance of Crohn’s. Crohn’s is an…
In an article she wrote this past spring for the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, bioethicist Laurie Zoloth approached from a Jewish perspective the moral choices posed by advances in genetic and medical research. While acknowledging the public sense of “moral panic” at the thought of genetic enhancement, she argues that the commandment to…
A broad screening program in Israel for Type 1 Gaucher disease, the most common of the Jewish genetic diseases, is proving controversial, Israeli researchers noted in a September 2007 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Screening programs are encouraged for severe diseases where couples at risk could be identified before giving birth…
The Forward presents this section to provide information on some of the more serious Jewish genetic diseases. There are about 20 “Ashkenazic diseases,” not counting the higher rates of at least four cancer-related genes. The diseases are more prevalent in the Eastern European Jewish population because of centuries of endogamy — literally, “marrying within.” Bloom’s…
The MILO Gladstein Foundation 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #583 Los Angeles, CA 90028 www.bloomssyndrome.org info@milogladsteinfoundation.org Lauri and Richard Gladstein established the Milo Gladstein Foundation for Bloom’s Syndrome in 2004 shortly after their son Milo was diagnosed with the disorder. The foundation’s goal is to fund research aimed at finding a treatment for the disease. Canavan Foundation…
Beautiful paintings and other works of art line the room. A rapt and attentive audience looks upward at the sea of color, expressing the personalities and feelings of those struggling with what it means to have a genetic disease. Expression of Hope, an exhibit sponsored by Genzyme Corporation, is designed to bring awareness of Gaucher…
Researchers have discovered that they can help alleviate some of the symptoms of familial dysautonomia through diet. FD patients are deficient in the protein IKAP, which affects genes that make monoamine oxidase (MAO), an enzyme that destroys tyramine. A diet high in tyramine can cause the autonomic crises that lead to such symptoms as vomiting,…
די העלדין פֿון „דאָ איז נאָך אַלץ דאָ“ טראָגט אױף זיך דעם לאַסט פֿון איר באָבעס חורבן־טראַװמע.
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