A Genetic Treatment for Sickle Cell Disease

This video presents an intriguing phenomenon: two patients who carry the same genetic variation, which is known to cause sickle cell disease, have very different outcomes.

One patient has debilitating pain crises that have kept her from attending college, and the other does not have symptoms. What could be the difference? The answer has to do with the expression of a certain gene. This discovery could lead to a new treatment for sickle cell disease.

This video can be used as part of a lesson about genetic variations, inheritance, genetic medicine, and/or gene expression. 

An audio descriptive version of the film is available via our media player.