Media outlets around the globe are reporting on the innovative UMass Medical School discovery into Down syndrome, in which Professor Jeanne Lawrence, PhD, and colleagues were able to silence the extra chromosome that causes disabilities in people with Down syndrome. The research, conducted in cell cultures and reported in the current issue of the journal Nature, is “revolutionary,” scientists say.
“It really is revolutionary, in terms of causing us all to rethink the one impossible thought—can you make, functionally, that extra chromosome disappear,” Dr. Brian Skotko, co-director of the Down Syndrome Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a front page Boston Globe story. “I don’t think any of us thought it was possible or even within the current realm of scientific dreaming.”
Here are some of the media stories on the development today.
Scientists hit at core of Down syndrome
Boston Globe
Fresh Insights Into Down Syndrome
WBUR’s Radio Boston
New Genetic Therapy Could Erase Down Syndrome
WBUR’s Here & Now
UMass Medical Researchers Block Down Syndrome Chromosome (video)
Fox 25 Morning News
UMass researchers block Down syndrome chromosome (video)
WCVB Channel 5
Stem cell research yields Down syndrome breakthrough
Boston Herald
Scientists find way to silence extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome
Fox News
Scientists "Switch Off" Down's Syndrome's Extra Chromosome in a Lab
Nature World News
Genetic advance in Down syndrome
BBC News
Phenomena: Not Exactly Rocket Science
National Geographic
Technique inactivates Down-causing chromosome
Science News
Scientists figure out how to turn off Down syndrome in laboratory
CBS News
Scientists find way to silence extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome, could lead to new therapies
New York Post
Down's syndrome cells 'fixed' in first step towards chromosome therapy
The Guardian
Chromosome for Down's Is Switched Off
Discovery News
UMass researchers 'shut down' trigger for Down syndrome
Boston Business Journal
