The Incredible Potential of Gene Therapy

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In the modern world humans have been able to design and create nearly anything, most to aid us in our daily lives and improve our standard of living. It is only inevitable that eventually humans would take our superior knowledge and skill to manipulate life itself and change our genome to produce a healthier and even more superior human standard of life. In recent years discussion about gene therapy has changed into a promising possibility to treat many of our common human diseases and disorders. Although gene therapy might be the answer to many problems, it has been met with a number of logistical and ethical hardships. With the prospect of being a treatment for inherited genetic disorders, cancers, and viral infections, gene therapy seems like the logical fix-it-all bandage that many people would benefit from. Gene therapy is a relatively new concept owing mainly to our current knowledge of the human body and the relatively modern understanding of genetic coding and process. We now are able to better identify and understand the genetic causes of human ailments, and are just beginning to understand how to fix, replace, or eradicate the chromosomal basis for these issues; this is the concept of gene therapy. However logistically dealing with the small structure of genes, chromosomes, and DNA is not as easy as repairing a cracked wall or damaged water pipe, we are dealing with complex and microscopic materials that ordinary tools cannot deal with. Manufacturing such tools to deliver corrective DNA into affected cells within the body is just one of the obstacles that scientists and researchers are facing. Arthur Bank, guest journalist for BioJournals, recently detailed that modifying viruses proves to be an effective w... ... middle of paper ... ... therapy. With further research and development it might just be possible to take the genetic evolution of the human genome into our own hands. However, it is no surprise that there are some that question the ethical background of such a procedure. Works Cited "An Introduction in Gene Therapy." Haemophilia 6.(2000): 110-114. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 July 2011. Bank, Arthur. "Human Somatic Cell Gene Therapy." BioEssays 18.12 (1996): 999. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 July 2011. Southwell, Amber L., and Paul H. Patterson. "Gene Therapy in Mouse Models of Huntington Disease." Neuroscientist 17.2 (2011): 153-162. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 July 2011. "Genetics Home Reference: Gene Therapy." Genetics Home Reference. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 11 JUL 2011. Web. 16 Jul 2011. .

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