S. Cassagnaud et al., Science Translational Medicine (2013)Big step. A mouse that has the equivalent of achondroplasia (top) doesn’t measure up to an animal that received injections of FGFR3 (bottom). It may sound counterintuitive, but the most common type of human dwarfism results when cells in a child’s bones are overstimulated by growth factors. A mouse study, however, suggests that injecting such children with a molecular decoy that sponges up these factors could treat the condition.People with the form of dwarfism called achondroplasia rarely stand more than 1.5 meters tall. The mutation responsible for the condition ends up stunting the...
