Researchers in the US may have achieved a major breakthrough in treating people with Down's syndrome. The disease is induced by a genome mutation that causes the entire chromosome 21, or parts of it, to develop three copies. In lab experiments, geneticists at the University of Massachusetts recently succeeded in silencing the chromosome that causes Down's syndrome.
In an article published in "Nature", the team describes how it was able to block the third copy of chromosome 21 in human cells. "Our hope is that this proof-of-principle opens up multiple exciting new avenues for studying the disorder", said lead author Jeanne Lawrence. However, many years of research were still necessary.
