Hope for children with rare genetic defect
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - 14:01
in Health & Medicine
To date, there is no therapy for Batten disease. Patients pass away in their teens or twenties. Four years ago, the working group lead by Dr. Mika Ruonala at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany started to study the consequences of the underlying genetic defect. In the meantime, the scientists have detected several "biomarkers" that can now be used in search for screening for potentially active drugs in cooperation with the Harvard Medical School in Boston.