Sunday, October 14, 2012

"The Forever Fix" Explains Gene Therapy

By Saleem Rana


Monday, October 1st, 2012

Interview By Allen Cardoza

Allen Cardoza, the founder of the Answers for the Family Blog, welcomed writer Ricki Lewis to this week's L.A. Talk Radio to review her most recent book, "The Forever Fix." This is the very first book of its kind to reveal the inside story of gene treatment. The narrative non-fiction publication is a summary of how gene treatment works in real life and the scientific discipline behind it.

About Ricki Lewis

Ricki grew in New York City, and she got her PhD in genetics from Indiana University in 1980 by working with mutant flies that had legs growing out of their heads. After creating numerous books for students and writing thousands of magazine articles, she has now authored her first narrative nonfiction book, "The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It." This is the true story of a resurrected biotechnology that gave the gift of sight to a youthful boy. In an engaging, novel-like theme, Ricki chronicles the ups and downs of gene therapeutic procedures through the eyes of the youngsters, parents, specialists, and even the once-blind sheepdogs that have actually experienced it.

Ricki is a genetic counselor in Schenectady, NY and an instructor for the Genethics online masters program at the Alden March Bioethics Institute of Albany Medical College. In her spare time, she works as a volunteer for Community Hospice in Schenectady.

The Quiet Revolution in Gene Therapy

Allen began the interview by talking Ricki into sharing with the audiences the enthralling story of Corey Haas. Corey Haas, Ricki explained, had successfully undergone gene therapy when he was eight years old to heal his genetic blindness. His repaired vision marked a development in the recognition of the astounding value of gene therapy. Nine years earlier, the biotechnology had actually been sidelined when an 18-year-old perished in a very similar experiment in the very same Philadelphia hospital.

In the course of the interview, Ricki discussed genetic disease, genetic testing, and genetic counseling, in addition to gene therapy, unusual diseases, and new discoveries in stem cell research. She also talked about how medical researchers learned from each trial to get one step closer to figuring out what worked in gene therapy. She decided to call her book the "Forever Fix," since gene therapy repairs all medical issues at their genetic origin. After a single treatment, patients, mainly youngsters with unusual genetic diseases, do not need further surgical procedures or treatments.




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