Enough of blaming your environment every time you come down with an illness. Heres a new possibility: it could all be in your genes.

And proponents of genetic medicine are pushing the practice a notch higher in Nigeria.

The premise is that specific genes are responsible for specific conditions, and finding the right gene is the silver bullet.

Genetic disorder in medicine is not very well recognised, says Hyung Goo Kim, associate professor in neuroscience and regenerative medicine department at Augusta University, USA.

Hes part of a team expanding the scope of regenerative medicine through lectures at the National Hospital, Abuja.

Many people suffer disease but the [cause] is not recognised. The point is to find the disease gene for diagnosis and in the long run cure and treatment.

If we can identify the gene causing the disorder then we can understand the biology of the disorder more than before. That way we can intervene to try to cure and treat.

Regenerative medicine works by allowing body tissues to reprogramme themselves to act in different ways depending on what they are required to do or where they are placed.

For this, researchers use pluripotent cells, capable of becoming just about anything, and abundant in bone marrow.

Every disease in your body system can actually be tackled if we engineer the production of stem cells to fight that disease, says Prosper Igboeli, a professor at University of Nigeria and Augusta University.

The science of regeneration makes it possible to induce pluripotent stem cells.

Igboeli cautiously explains it is like taking skin and reorganising it to make any cell, even sperm.

I dont like to say things that are not correct. But we are having this new feeling that we can take your skin and make sperm out of it.

The bone marrow is a reserve of cells that can be re-engineered and configured through passage, injected into organs and organs respond to that particular disease state and revert back to normal.

The payoff is in having your body produce what you need for a cure instead of popping pills.

The range is anything from infertility and diabetes to spinal cord injuries and cancer.

Some endeavours have reached clinical stage, including experimental treatment for premature ovarian failure and polycystic ovarian syndrome.

National Hospital is building up its interest in stem cell research and looking at bone marrow transplantation as a possibility.

Health care research provides answers to questions lingering in the minds of health care providers in terms of diseases they are trying to manage, says Dr Jafar Momoh, chief medical director of the hospital.

The first world spends a lot of money on research and National Hospital is trying to collaborate with various [nongovernmental organisations] to deliver on the mandate for research.

We are looking at bone marrow transplantation. This is something the country needs for various diseases.

Research here will bring in funding from donor agencies interested in new research areas. Hence we need a robust research program. We have published papers but we want to take it to another level: molecular genetics, stem cell medicine and bone marrow transplantation, said Momoh.

Genetic medicine research is big in Egypt and Tunisia.

The effort now is to build a network of experts and a network to accumulate a database to help identify disease genes.

Read more from the original source:

Sorry, it's all in your genes - Daily Trust