Geneticists Closing In on Site of Gene Linked to Bowel Disease : SCIENCE FILE / An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment
From Times staff and wire reports
French scientists have narrowed the search for the location of the gene that causes Crohn’s disease, a major form of inflammatory bowel disease that affects as many as one in every 2,000 people. A team from Institut Curie in Paris reports in the Feb. 29 issue of Nature that the gene lies in a small region on chromosome 14, one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes that make up the human genetic blueprint. Identifying the gene, they hope, will shed light on how the disease develops and lead to new ways to treat or prevent it.
