Who will get gene therapy?

[Gnomes]

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No, I don't mean which patients will get it, although that's a good question. I mean "Which medical specialty will do gene therapy, particularly germ-line gene therapy?"

I know some people dislike the "designer baby" concept, but the technology is coming nonetheless, and there are huge potential benefits to be gained by widespread application.

I'm interested in doing medical research (applying for the MSTP in 2010), and I am thinking about this area. (Yes, yes, it's "too early to be thinking about these things.")

Possibilities:
OB/GYN - Currently doing IVF and other assisted reproduction. I hope it doesn't work out this way because I have never heard or read a medical student say something positive about this speciality beyond "well, I guess birth itself is cool..."

Medical Genetics - It is a genetics topic, after all.

A new speciality - Gene therapy is pretty revolutionary.


Personally, for what it's worth, I think it would be cool to see a new speciality develop, but being a pessimist, I'd guess it will end up as an OB/GYN fellowship.

What do you think?

 

[collinsc]

No, I don't mean which patients will get it, although that's a good question. I mean "Which medical specialty will do gene therapy, particularly germ-line gene therapy?"

I know some people dislike the "designer baby" concept, but the technology is coming nonetheless, and there are huge potential benefits to be gained by widespread application.

I'm interested in doing medical research (applying for the MSTP in 2010), and I am thinking about this area. (Yes, yes, it's "too early to be thinking about these things.")

Possibilities:
OB/GYN - Currently doing IVF and other assisted reproduction. I hope it doesn't work out this way because I have never heard or read a medical student say something positive about this speciality beyond "well, I guess birth itself is cool..."

Medical Genetics - It is a genetics topic, after all.

A new speciality - Gene therapy is pretty revolutionary.


Personally, for what it's worth, I think it would be cool to see a new speciality develop, but being a pessimist, I'd guess it will end up as an OB/GYN fellowship.

What do you think?

I would think that gene therapy to apply to many different types of subspecialities, especially regenerative medicine.

For a while I was actually interested in mitochondrial gene therapy for heart disease (still think there would be awesome possibilities, just need a good reliable vector).

But I would think that anything is possible especially when you talk about genes...

 

[flaquita69us]

Possibilities:
OB/GYN - Currently doing IVF and other assisted reproduction. I hope it doesn't work out this way because I have never heard or read a medical student say something positive about this speciality beyond "well, I guess birth itself is cool..."

I'm only an M2 so I haven't done my OB/Gyn rotation yet, but our female reproductive unit was awesome! This is a field that is in dire need of research because we don't know what causes pretty much anything. And ovarian cancer, that's a disease that's just waiting for someone to figure it out. Plus this robotic surgery that's being used for hysterectomies - awesome. Gynecologic oncology is pretty amazing as well, just from an intellectual stand point - one organ, five million different tumors.

And maybe I'm the only person in the world that thinks this, but the gyne exam is fantastic. This in one of the only (internal) exams where you actually get to see exactly what you're doing and you get truly vital information from it.

Sorry I didn't answer your question at all, but something good needed to be said about Ob/Gyn.

 

[nobleheart]

Many specialties...I personally know of an immunologist....NIH...researching applications of GT for primary immune def. Very cool/promising stuff