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Great challenges of biomedicine. Down's syndrome: a story of chromosomes

Lecture by Susana de la Luna

Biomedicine is most probably the field of research that has most impact in our lives, not so much in everyday life but, rather, with regard to our state of health, the development of new drugs and, in brief, the prospects for curing many illnesses. The radical changes that have taken place in recent years are due to the fact that the struggle against disease is now based on intimate molecular and genetic knowledge of the causal bases of illness. With this debate we aim to explore the limits set by biomedicine and the promises that it is opening up and expanding with regard to its effects on our health.

Down’s syndrome is the result of the presence of an extra Chromosome 21, or part of it, in the organism’s cells. Down’s syndrome research therefore seeks to understand the function of the genes contained in this chromosome.
 
 

Related to Great Challenges of Biomedicine, ICREA-CCCB Debates, Cancer: from biomedicine to patient

19 June 2013