Reminder how strange genetics can be

Strange and seemingly cruel... Brooke is a girl from the UK and at age 17 is only 75cm tall, but her condition is not dwarfism. In many ways, physical and mental, she hasn't aged past about 6-12 months. She has not developed the ability to speak, and she still has her baby teeth. Prof. Richard Walker is leading the effort to sequence her genome: not just to possibly aid Brooke, but to unlock the secrets of aging. He explained, “Our hypothesis is that she is suffering from damage in the gene or genes that co-ordinate the way the body develops and ages. If we can use her DNA to find that mutant gene then we can test it in laboratory animals to see if we can switch if off and slow down the aging process at will."

THANKS to Kris Winkler for this item.