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potential benefit in the future of this type of research and information
for families may be the certainty in which a doctor can tell a particular
family member that they will not be affected in their life. At this point
in time, there can not be such certainty in information given, but in the
near future, the possibility of a doctor being able to be 99% certain that
because the person does not have a particular gene, this would then mean
that the person would not get Macular Degeneration in their life.
Other important factors about genetic research may help in the future towards treatment of a disease. People often ask, "If there is an abnormal gene, can you replace it with a normal gene?". The answer to this question is currently being studied in many centers throughout the world. There are many questions that arise when researching this type of approach such as that if you could insert a new gene into a cell and make it work would it positively influence the disease? A partial answer of "yes" has been discovered that if in deed you could put a new gene into a cell, the disease may be altered in a positive way. Has there been any success in transferring a normal gene into an abnormal gene? And if it is transferred successfully will it work for long periods? Other questions also arise such as if the new gene is successfully transferred and if the new gene would exist for a long period, would it then produce the right amount of protein necessary to make the disease go away? This is not yet known. The fact that a gene may be transferred is obviously very encouraging but we don't yet know whether such a gene that is transferred would work for a very long period or whether it would deliver the right amount of protein. So as you can see there are many encouraging
steps being taken in genetic research, but at this time there are many
more questions to be answered. We look forward to keeping you abreast of
some of the research and some of the successes in the genetics area.
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visit The Foundation Fighting Blindness at www.blindnesss.org or e-mail us at MDInfo@blindness.org. Intro | Nutrition | Juvenile | Age-Related | Low Vision | What's New |