They will be focusing on Enzyme Replacement Therapy and Gene Therapy. One in 75 Ashkenazi Jews is a carrier. The disease is transmitted through heredity. Both parents have to carry the Neimann-Pick gene for there to be a possibility of transmission to their child. There is a two in four chance the child will inherit one of each kind of gene and be a carrier like the parents, and free of the disease.
Unaffected siblings have a two in three chance of being carriers.
There is a carrier screening test which requires a sample of blood that can determine whether or not a gene change is present in the gene for Neiman-Pick.