What is Gene therapy for disease? Genes are what make you , you. We get half of our genes from our Fathers, and the other half from our Mothers. Depending on what genes we get, it determines whether we have blue eyes or brown. If we have Brown hair or blonde hair. Dark skin or light skin. Genes also determine the amount of oxygen our blood carries and our IQ. A change in any one of these genes or a mutation, can result in a disease, physical disability, or shortened life span. What gene therapy hopes to do is completely eliminate inherited diseases or physical conditions. There are two forms for gene therapy: “Somatic” gene therapy which involves introducing a "good" gene into targeted cells to treat someone , but the down side to that is, it does not treat the patient's children, because these genes do not get passed along to their ongoing children. This is the more common form of gene therapy being done. The other type is, “Germline” gene therapy, this involves changing the genes in the egg or sperm cells, which in return then will pass any genetic changes to future generations. This type of therapy is not certain, it hasn’t had a lot of research, but so far gene therapy has moved from the conceptual stage to technology development and laboratory research to clinical translational trials for a variety of deadly diseases.
There are many risks and benefits. Gene therapy is done only through clinical trials, which can take years to complete. After new drugs or procedures are tested in laboratories, clinical trials are done with humans under strict