Daniel Jackson

New gene therapy for heart disease and diabetes: how will hypochondriacs react?

The drugs giant AstraZeneca (AZ) has signed a deal with heart researchers in Canada which pushes forward the project to prevent – and even reverse – heart disease and diabetes by identifying the genes that put people at risk.

There’s been a lot of talk about ‘personalised medicine’ that offers us our own therapy tailored to our own weaknesses – specifically, the genetic time-bombs lurking our DNA. Until now, GPs have looked at our family history of heart disease, cancer, diabetes etc and (at least inwardly) shrugged. There’s only so much they can do.

The AZ deal with the Montreal Heart Institute will produce one of the largest genetic screenings to date. To quote PharmaTimes:

[The Heart Institute] will genotype up to 80,000 DNA samples from AZ’s biobank, seeking genes linked with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, their complications and treatment outcomes.

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