Genetic diseases are diseases that are inherited.
They can result in a wide variety of illnesses, including diabetes, hypertension, cancer, growth disorders, emotional and psychiatric disorders, hormone deficiencies or excesses, and diseases of aging persons. By age 60, most people in the United States are affected by some kind of illness with a genetic component. These problems cause significant disability to patients and cost billions of dollars in health care expenditures and lost wages. Information leading to the prevention or cure of any one of these diseases would save large amounts of money and, more importantly, improve the quality of life. The field of molecular endocrinology has witnessed a decade of explosive growth of new information from scientists' laboratories.