Altered Fates; Gene Therapy and the Retooling of Human Life

A detailed narrative considers the unprecedented medical revolution in gene therapy, the combination of genetics and reproductive technology, and the replacement of defective genes to prevent disease, and includes the human passion, jealousy, politics, and drama behind the scenes.

In 1990 Ashanthi DeSilva, a four-year-old suburban Cleveland girl with a life-threatening, hereditary immune disorder, made medical history when doctors at the National Institutes of Health successfully treated her by inserting new genetic material into her cells and reprogramming them to produce an essential enzyme. The first half of this epic, magnificent history of gene therapy retraces years of tortuous research culminating in that breakthrough, which was the work of NIH molecular biologist William French Anderson and his colleagues. Also highlighted is National Cancer Institute immunotherapist Steven Rosenberg, who uses gene therapy to destroy cancerous cells. In the book's second half, Lyon and Gorner, who won a 1987 Pulitzer for their Chicago Tribune series on gene therapy, survey the field's potential to diagnose and treat cystic fibrosis, heart disease, cancer, schizophrenia, manic depression, alcoholism and many other illnesses and to retard the aging process. The authors are optimistic that gene therapy will revolutionize medicine. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lyons and Gorner present the science, scientists, and ethics of a technology destined to have as great an impact on humanity's fate as nuclear weapons: genetic manipulation. Behind all the sci-fi horror of genetic eugenics, this pair of Chicago Tribune reporters unveil the tangible possibility of curing thousands of inherited diseases, in addition to viral ones such as AIDS. The geniuses of biochemistry have developed the techniques of gene therapy--conceptually, the transplant of properly coded genes for defective ones--and have already applied them to such inheritable afflictions as cancer and coronary disease. However, the ethical questions cascade as the microbiological trail reaches the current frontiers where lie the human genes--all 100,000 of which are now being mapped by the Human Genome Project--that control aging, psychology, and intellect. Will cloning embryos, now a definite possibility, enable scientists not merely to create twins, but to leapfrog evolution by inventing a supersentient branch of the Homo genus superior to our sapiens species? Given the enthusiastic propensity of the scientists to push on for the renown of a Nobel Prize, who of them will heed calls for restraint? New dawn or new Pandora's box, gene surgery is established fact, and the lay public following recent developments can scarcely be better informed than by Lyons and Gorner's skillfully written, pathbreaking portrayal. Gilbert Taylor

Chicago Tribune reporters Lyon and Gorner revisit their Pulitzer Prize-winning series on genetic research and therapy in this absorbing look at arguably the most important developments in the history of medicine: identifying and changing human genes for therapeutic purposes ranging from treating various cancers to curing genetic defects like cystic fibrosis. The authors face two challenges. First, their field, while changing constantly, still hasn't produced a definitive "magic bullet" that actually fixes something (this always seems just around the corner). Second, they seek to explain to lay readers a subject whose researchers sport an alphabet soup of advanced degrees; this is serious science. They do very well; literate and patient readers will learn a great deal fairly painlessly. The book suffers mildly from the lack of a bibliography and from a style that occasionally borders on newspaperese. Still, this is an important work against which comparable works for general readers should be measured.
Mark L. Shelton, Worcester, Mass.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.