In a New Approach to Fighting Disease, Helpful Genetic Mutations Are Sought
Doug Whitney should have died years ago. The 65-year-old resident of Port Orchard, Wash., has a devastating gene mutation that — according to the medical literature — causes early onset Alzheimer’s disease in everyone who inherits it. But Mr. Whitney has somehow escaped that fate. His memory is intact, and he has no signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers want to find out why. So Mr. Whitney has become Exhibit A in a new direction in genetics research. After years of looking for mutations that cause diseases, investigators are now searching for those that prevent them. The new approach is turning genetics research on its head, said Eric E. Schadt, director of the Icahn Institute, a medical research institute at Mount Sinai in New York.
- Dr. Eric Schadt, Professor, Chair, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology