The scientific resources are greater now than ever in history. Human knowledge will lead to prolong healthy life span. If we can relate the new technologies with social and psychological support, which are equally important, we can look forward to a time when this advances combined will provide more opportunities for a meaningful existence late in life. The most important revolution in biomedical science in the last two decades has been our ability to isolate various disease-causing genes and study the basic defects at the molecular level. In my presentation, I would use the cloning of the gene for cystic fibrosis to illustrate various points.
Cystic fibrosis is a common genetic disorder in the Caucasian population.
Patients with CF suffer from a variety of problems associated with respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, male reproductive tract and other exocrine malfunctions, including loss of electrolytes in their sweat. The isolation of the CF gene was accomplished in 1989. Significant progress has since been made regarding our understanding of CF in the past 10 years. In addition, there are over 800 other mutations that have been identified, although most of them are rare and some appear to be population specific. The mutation data have been widely applied in DNA diagnosis and carrier testing.