Fast Facts on Tay Sachs: Recent Episodes
Christopher Carney
An investigative look into Tay-Sachs Disease. A three part series looking at the cause, treatment and research surrounding this devastating disease.
The final episode of Fast Facts on Tay-Sachs goes deep into two of the best chances of a cure or effective treatment for Tay-Sachs, Gene Therapy and Stem Cell Therapy. We talk about research being done by The Tay-Sachs Gene Therapy Consortium, relate Tay-Sachs to Units 3 and 4, and finish with a look at how a Physical Therapist would treat a patient with Tay-Sachs.
In this episode, we discuss how Tay-Sachs was discovered as well as the connection between the Ashkenazi Jewish people in the discovery and treatment of the disease. The episode continues with a look at some of the older more common treatments, substrate reduction therapy and bone marrow transplantation, that are being researched and administered, and we go more in depth into a newer approach called Enzyme Replacement Therapy. Finally, we finish by connecting some of the symptoms of Tay-Sachs disease to our A&P unit and to how a Pediatric Nurse would administer care to a patient with this diagnosis.
Episode one gets into the Science behind the devastating neurodegenarative disease Tay-Sachs Disease. We go in depth on the chemical and genetic reasons for Tay-Sachs, as well as an introductory look at current Treatment and Research into the disease. Episode 1 finishes with a look on how treating Tay-Sachs patients will impact the future career of a neo-natal nurse.