Sickle Cell Research Project

Mutations in DNA and RNA can cause genetic disorders because they are the scripts to make proteins and they tell what they do and go to. If a mutation makes a protein that is supposed to go to the liver and it goes to the brain for instance it could mess things up in there. For a Mutation to carry on it usually has to be a dominant gene, or it will just die out in that particular organism. Sickle cell anemia is a disease that causes hemoglobin s (abnormal hemoglobin molecules) and that makes the red blood cells stiffen and assume a sickle shape. The shape of the blood cells causes them to pile up and cause blockages that damage vital tissue. It is anemia because these blood cells are destroyed rapidly in patients. A baby born with sickle cell disease inherits a gene for the disorder from both parents. When both parents have the genetic defect, there is a 25 % chance that each child will be born the disease. With new drugs and research patients are able to live past childhood and live past fifty. The only cure to this is a bone marrow transplant where a close genetic match, usually a sibling, gives bone marrow to correct the blood making. Genetic Therapy claims to be able to correct the defective gene and plant it into the bone marrow.

Stem cell research is where an embryos or adult tissue are used to study genetics and to find cures to diseases. It is controversial because people think that the embryos are human life and that they could be used for cloning. I full agree that stem cell research should be legal because the embryos used for it are most of the time thrown out or re frozen never to be used again. There are diseases that have to be cured and this is the most promising way to do it not through religion or conservative thinking. I do not like the idea of human cloning it is not right and should only be used if our race is about to become extinct (race means humans not black white or w/e). Sickle cell anemia could be cured if a way to reverse and correct the genetic mutation is found.