Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: mutation

  • “Am not I a fly like thee?” Drosophila melanogaster and the human genome

    Marshall A. LichtmanRochester, New York, United States Animal models have been essential to medical research for millennia. Ethical concerns about their use has led to a decrease in use of large animals (e.g., dogs, cats). Perhaps the smallest of research animals is Drosophila melanogaster, a fruit fly, one tenth inch in length, which has contributed…

  • Early clinical and molecular discoveries in Long QT Syndrome

    Göran WettrellSweden Sudden and unexpected death in people who are less than thirty-five years of age is associated with negative autopsy results in forty percent of cases.1 Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) is one of the most common cardiac ion channelopathies to cause sudden death in young people. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, reports…