One in a Billion
eBook - ePub

One in a Billion

The Story of Nic Volker and the Dawn of Genomic Medicine

  1. 256 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

One in a Billion

The Story of Nic Volker and the Dawn of Genomic Medicine

About this book

"A riveting scientific detective story" ( The Washington Post ) by two Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists who chronicle a young Wisconsin boy with a never-before-seen disease and the doctors who save his life by taking a new step into the future of medicine. In this landmark medical narrative, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Mark Johnson and Kathleen Gallagher share the story of Nic Volker, the first patient to be saved by a bold breakthrough in medicine—a complete gene sequencing, aimed at finding the cause of an otherwise undiagnosable illness. At just two years old, Nic experienced a brief flicker of pain that signaled the awakening of a new and deadly disease, one that would hurl him and his family into a harrowing journey in search for a lifesaving cure. After his symptoms stump every practitioner, it becomes clear that Nic's is a one in a billion case, a disease that no one has ever seen before.As Nic and his family search for answers, the scientific community is racing to bring about the next revolution in medicine—translating results from the Human Genome Project to treatments for actual patients. At the forefront is the brilliant geneticist Howard Jacob, who starts a lab at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Then Nic's head physician reaches out to Jacob with an unprecedented of idea. A disease like Nic's is likely due to a rare mutation: if they could sequence his genes to try to find the mutation, the boy might live. Jacob doesn't know if he can do it; Nic's doctors don't know if it will even work; and no one knows what else might lie in the Pandora's Box of Nic's genome. But they decide to try—and in doing so, they step into a new era of medicine. One in a Billion is "a compelling story of a modern medical miracle—the first instance of personalized medicine" ( Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ) and the birth of a scientific revolution.

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Yes, you can access One in a Billion by Mark Johnson,Kathleen Gallagher in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Medicine & Medicine Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Chapter 1: At the Threshold
  4. Chapter 2: Beyond the Four Letters
  5. Chapter 3: Try Me
  6. Chapter 4: The Pied Piper
  7. Chapter 5: An Extraordinary Patient
  8. Chapter 6: Diagnostic Odyssey
  9. Chapter 7: Spiders on the Ceiling
  10. Chapter 8: Big Steps and Fast
  11. Chapter 9: Patient X
  12. Chapter 10: No More Secrets
  13. Chapter 11: Survivors
  14. Chapter 12: The Dragon
  15. Chapter 13: The Genome Joke
  16. Chapter 14: Why Are We Here?
  17. Chapter 15: Unknown Territory
  18. Chapter 16: I’m Going to Tell You a Story
  19. Chapter 17: Fine White Threads
  20. Chapter 18: Thousands of Suspects
  21. Chapter 19: The Culprit
  22. Chapter 20: Faith and Doubt
  23. Chapter 21: The Smell of Creamed Corn
  24. Chapter 22: Inheritance
  25. Chapter 23: Come Along and Follow Me
  26. Acknowledgments
  27. About the Authors
  28. Notes
  29. Sources
  30. Index
  31. Copyright