I'm Right Again dot com
An Online Publication of The Anonymous Anything Society- March 13, 2019

 WE'RE ALL FULL OF DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID (DNA)

    The last decade has been filled with the significance of a monumentally great scientific discovery made in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick of the double helix of genetic material each of us carry in every molecule of our beings. Much of the good news has been associated with crime solving and freedom of wrongly convicted prisoners. It has taken more than 60 years to decode the DNA genome.

    Recently,, I watched a 60-minutes segment on CBS, tell about the possibility of a cure for a myriad number of inheritable genetic maladies, beginning with Sickle Cell Anemia (SCA) by employing something termed "gene therapy." A trial has been ongoing for 15 months with a patient, an African American woman in her early 20s, who has suffered what she describes as bone-crushing pain for years. SCA principally effects African Americans. It kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide every year.

    SCA is evident when a blood draw shows distorted red blood cells, many of which have a distinctive half moon or sickle shape. The therapy includes transfusion of the patients' blood and modifying one of the four bases in the helix: adenine, thymine, cystosine or guanine, in effect scrubbing the helix's ability to produce  sickle cells, The young lady in this trial has been free of the sickle cells and recurrent pain for longer than a year. 60-minutes showed her running like a Olympic competitor.

    Here's the most exciting aspect of this amazing work: there may be miracle cures for many other inheritable maladies waiting to be cured by utilizing this remarkable therapy. 

-Phil Richardson, Observer of the Human Condition and Storyteller 

    "He goes doddering on into his old age, making a public nuisance of himself."—Joseph Menchen

Our unending thanks to Jim Bromley, who programs our Archive of Prior Commentaries

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