[kimmie7]

Thanks sweetie. I remember. And I've missed seeing you around.

There's a twist to this...I know they're doing research and we will do EVERYTHING possible to save our precious boy. HOWEVER a lot of the technology is coming from stem cell research. Especially what I'm hearing about Gene Replacement Therapy. We are ardently pro-life, and will not use technology that has benefitted from another child's willful murder. (Yes, we are okay with transplantation due to accident, etc.)

This one is truly in God's hands. . . . really where it ought to be.

[Ff--150]

Prayer bump for a child.

[EternalVigilance]

Add my prayers....

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I know they're doing research and we will do EVERYTHING possible to save our precious boy. HOWEVER a lot of the technology is coming from stem cell research. Especially what I'm hearing about Gene Replacement Therapy. We are ardently pro-life, and will not use technology that has benefitted from another child's willful murder.

Remember that stem cells can be obtained from cord blood after birth. No one is harmed.

I'll keep everyone in my prayers.

[etabeta]

joining in prayer for your son's health and for strength and comfort to his family. Praying for the healing Light of God to permeate every cell of your son's body and restore him to health. Blessings, etabeta

[Myrddin]

HOWEVER a lot of the technology is coming from stem cell research. Especially what I'm hearing about Gene Replacement Therapy.

I was an ardent advocate of Gene Replacement Therapy as well as articial synthesis of deficient proteins when I was an undergraduate student in molecular biology at UCSD in 1975. The technology was very primitive at that point. We had just managed to create the E. coli R1 mutant that allowed growing vats of E. coli with an inserted gene. The first fruits of that effort was mass production of human recombinant insulin. It is much better than the pig insulin that was refined from slaughter house remains.

In 1975, my focus was Lesch-Nyhan disease. It is a protein deficiency caused by lack of a good copy of a specific gene. The absence of the enzyme specified by that protein causes metabolic disorders that result in neurological damage and self destructive behavior. The concept of gene replacement therapy seemed reasonable to me in 1975. It seems odd that 29 years have passed and it is still a good idea that is a work in progress. I hope the research community has something useful to offer your son.

[tracer]

Gene therapy is not a sure enough thing. As we have discussed, a liver transplant is your best bet.

The good news is that, thanks to modern immunology, a close histocompatibility match is not as important as it used to be, and a partial liver transplant, which makes more donor tissue available now, may well do the job.

My offers of assistance still stand. Please FReepMail me if I can help. And may the Lord watch over you, your son, and all of your family during this time of travail. My prayers are and have been with you, kimmie.....