Genetics

A disease trigger for pancreatitis has been identified

Patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis experience an either recurring or permanent inflammation of their pancreas. "In many cases, people develop this disease because they are drinking too much alcohol or they are smoking ...

Genetics

New gene-editing technique reverses vision loss in mice

Researchers in China have successfully restored the vision of mice with retinitis pigmentosa, one of the major causes of blindness in humans. The study, to be published March 17 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, uses ...

Immunology

Immune cells drive gallstone formation

Sticky meshworks of DNA and proteins extruded by white blood cells called neutrophils act as the glue that binds together calcium and cholesterol crystals during gallstone formation, researchers in Germany report August 15 ...

Genetics

Placenta is a dumping ground for genetic defects

In the first study of the genomic architecture of the human placenta, scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and their collaborators have confirmed that the normal structure of the placenta ...

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A genetic disorder is an illness caused by abnormalities in genes or chromosomes, especially a condition that is present from before birth. Most genetic disorders are quite rare and affect one person in every several thousands or millions.

A genetic disorder may or may not be a heritable disorder. Some genetic disorders are passed down from the parents' genes, but others are always or almost always caused by new mutations or changes to the DNA. In other cases, the same disease, such as some forms of cancer, may be caused by an inherited genetic condition in some people, by new mutations in other people, and by non-genetic causes in still other people.

Some types of recessive gene disorders confer an advantage in certain environments when only one copy of the gene is present.

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