Gene therapy is the insertion of genes into an individual's cells and tissues to treat a disease, such as a hereditary disease in which a deleterious mutant allele is replaced with a functional one. Although controversial, Gene Therapy can also be used for human genetic enhancement changing one's genetic formula and function towards a desired goal of "enhancement". Although the technology is still in its infancy, it has been used with some succes...
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Gene therapy is the insertion of genes into an individual's cells and tissues to treat a disease, such as a hereditary disease in which a deleterious mutant allele is replaced with a functional one. Although controversial, Gene Therapy can also be used for human genetic enhancement changing one's genetic formula and function towards a desired goal of "enhancement". Although the technology is still in its infancy, it has been used with some success and scientific break throughs continue to move Gene Therapy towards mainstream medicine. Antisense therapy is not strictly a form of gene therapy, but is a genetically-mediated therapy and is often considered together with other methods.
The road to the first approved gene therapy procedure was rocky and fraught with controversy. The biology of human gene therapy is very complex, and there are many techniques that still need to be developed and diseases that need to be understood more fully before gene therapy can be used appropriately. The...
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