Discovery could fight genetic diseases

A SIGNIFICANT breakthrough has been made in the fight against devastating genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and some cancers.

Scientists have discovered ways of altering the course of the potentially fatal diseases by changing the genetic code.

This code is the set of instructions that tell a cell how to make a specific protein. Central to the body’s protein production process is messenger RNA (mRNA), which takes these instructions from DNA and directs the steps necessary to build a protein.