Normally a 9-year-old boy cavorting with a big, shaggy dog isn’t anything unusual, but when Corey Haas grabbed the leash of 1-year-old Mercury last Saturday, it was a stunning sight. For both Corey and Mercury, a briard sheepdog, were born with the exact same form of hereditary blindness, Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA). And Read More
Genetic Linkage
My Microbiome
June 2, 2010
My Microbiome
Yesterday I committed a terrible crime. I walked away from a treadmill at the Y without scrubbing the handles.
“Ricki, get back here,” admonished the attendant as I headed for the elliptical. “You forgot to wipe down!”
“But I’m not sweating, and I never get sick. I won’t pass along Read More
Yesterday I committed a terrible crime. I walked away from a treadmill at the Y without scrubbing the handles.
“Ricki, get back here,” admonished the attendant as I headed for the elliptical. “You forgot to wipe down!”
“But I’m not sweating, and I never get sick. I won’t pass along Read More
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Creating Life and Curing Blindness
May 21, 2010
I’ve been at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy annual meeting this week, garnering tales for my book, tentatively entitled “The Forever Fix.” It is largely the story of 9-year-old Corey Haas, who was on his way to certain blindness when gene therapy performed at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in September 2008 Read More
GeneticsWatch
May 17, 2010
I met Cynthia in a van from the airport, headed to the annual meeting of familytreedna, where I was to speak about genetic testing. A beautiful blonde who looked decades younger than her 60 years, she’d led a painful life, with type 1 diabetes since childhood, just like her father, brother, Read More