Gene therapy

Gene therapy is a technique used to target specific genes that cause certain genetic diseases, these genes are often mutated causing conditions such as cystic fibrosis or hemophilia for example. This genes, with the help of the new tools biotechnology can provide us, can be targeted to be either just screened so a treatment can be started or directly treated.
The latter can be done using several methods, the most emphasized one is knocking out the mutated gene and replacing it with a non-mutated copy of the same gene. This is done by using several methods of DNA delivery by electric shock, using a viral host to be incorporated into the cell. No matter what the method used is, this new field of gene therapy is very promising since the number of diseases that are caused by recognized mutations is infinite, this can provide a hope for curing them, the costs of such therapy are still very high.

(2007) Retrieved on July 9 from http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Gene_therapy