Huntington's marker.Huntington's marker Scientists have located what they say is the best marker yet for the Huntington's disease gene. The new marker, called C4H, is a DNA sequence positioned about 4 million base pairs closer to the gene--which is located on chromosome 4--than the previous marker, G8 (SN: 11/12/83, p.311). In fact, C4H may even be on top of the gene, because a study of 150 people with the fatal neurological disorder has shown that C4H travels with the gene in all cases. The previous marker traveled with the gene 96 percent of the time. The new marker will allow better presymptomatic testing for the disease. Research testing is being done at Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University, mainly at Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins in 1867 had a group of his associates incorporated as the trustees of a university and a hospital, endowing each with $3.5 million. Daniel C. in Baltimore, Columbia University in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital Health care The major teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, widely regarded as one of the best health care centers in the world in Boston. The next step is to find the gene itself, which requires finding a DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. segment that produces a protein that may be responsible for the disease, says principal author T. Conrad Gilliam of Columbia, whose report appears in the Nov. 13 SCIENCE. Ten percent of a chromosome codes for a protein. Gilliam, who was with the Neurogenetics neu·ro·ge·net·ics n. The study of genetic factors that contribute to development of neurological disorders. Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital when the research was done, says it will take at least another year to locate the gene. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion