Gene Therapy

[Tristyn]

I was having an interesting discussion with someone in the chat here earlier about human anatomy and physiology, since it is a course I am taking in school. I never realized how awesome science really is until being introduced to the mind-blowing concepts in this class; like regenerative medicine, genetics, mutations, cloning, the list goes on!

Well, I was speaking with someone in chat about how cool it would be if humans perfected gene therapy enough to be able to genetically modify our sex so it organically matches with our gender so we do not need to do hormone replacement for the rest of our lives and we could be as natural with our sex as cis people are. No need for those injections when we could genetically engineer our chromosomes, right? I think this is known as human artificial chromosomes or HACs. Is anyone on here proficient in the knowledge of genetics and like to share their input on such a fascinating topic?

[Cindy]

The problem with manipulating hormones is that it isn't an on and off response.

The gene therapy regimes that have been most successful so far have been adding a functional gene for a specific protein, that protein is then produced. The example would be in cystic fibrosis.

Maybe have a read about that?

And yes Science is wonderful.

When I started treating leukaemia in 1975 95% of the children we treated died. Now 97% live. And no it wasn't me!

We now talk about cure with cancer patients and not survival.

And I am hoping that the talk is not just talk.