Consider: WWWWe get all of our traits from all the generations before us. NNNNaturally, we each have our own probability of something in our body not working as it should the second we are born. TTTThese include diseases we can get, to small things like poor sight. FFFFor millennia, we have not been able to change the base chances of us catching a disease, we could only try our best to help prevent it.

 There are two cases in which Gene Therapy would be used.  A requirement is, however, that there must be some disease or defect that needs to be fixed.  Either the person is completely missing the needed gene, or the current gene they have is not working correctly.  Nevertheless, the procedure generally stays the same, unless all that is needed is to “kick out” the bad genes. Say we are genetically modifying someone’s bone marrow to have more white blood cells.

I.Scientists take out the defective genes, and modify them into healthy genes. II.Scientists start by attaching the normal, healthy gene they want to give the patient to a harmless virus called a vector. III.They remove genetic material from the vector and replace it with genetic instructions to make a healthy copy of the person’s missing gene. IV.They then mix the vector and the new gene with bone marrow or blood from the patient. IV.They then mix the vector and the new gene with bone marrow or blood from the patient. V.The vector carrying the normal gene will penetrate the stem cells in the patient’s bone marrow/blood and replace the defective gene with the healthy gene. VI.Doctors then grow these corrected cells in an incubator (this step is basically spreading the healthy genes). Once they have enough, they inject them into the patient. The bone marrow will gradually absorb them. The new cells can then start making healthy white blood cells able to fight infection.

By: Molly Weiman By: Bharadwaj Sudarsan  Gene therapy uses genes to treat diseases.  Previously, surgery, drugs, and other sorts of treatments were given to treat diseases.  Gene Therapy involves injecting genes into the patient so that the genes can treat or prevent the disease(s) (like cancer, diabetes, etc.).  They can replace the mutated gene with a healthy version of it, “knock out” an improperly functioning mutant gene, or introducing a new gene to help fight the mutant gene.  They also normally have no noticeable side effects.