Timeline

Middle Ages- infants with salty skin, a symptom of CF, said to be “bewitched”. Salty skin is a symptom of CF. Excessive amounts of salt can cause abnormal heart rythms and shock.

1908- Archibald Garrod says that some diseases are due errors in metabolism, resulting in a lack of a specific enzyme. This is significant because it shows that CF could be linked to genes in your body.

1936- Condition is named as Cystic Fibrosis, before this the condition had no name. This helped put a name to the condition many people faced.

1938- First list of CF symptoms is created. This was created by Columbia University. This helped people identify CF in others.

1949- Said that CF is a recessive genetic disorder. 2 genes must be present for Cf to appear in a patient.

1953- Sweat test, now the most common test, is developed after a heat wave occurred in New York City. Since this, the sweat test has become the most widely used form of detecting CF. It measures the amount of salt in the sweat.

1968- First successful embryo biopsy performed on a rabbit.

Early 1980’s- Researchers associate CF organ damage with epithelial tissue malfunction

Mid 1980’s- PGD for humans first developed in the United Kingdom

1989- Discovery of the gene for CF, known as CFTR. A hospital in Toronto discovered this. Its chromosome is 7q.

May 2001-current-About 30,000 Americans are said to have CF, this is according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Also, more then 3,000 PGD clinical cycles in over 40 centers around the world.


Citations

Genetic Disease Profile: Cystic Fibrosis (2002) NIH Publication. Accessed February 14, 2007, www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/posters/chromosome/cf.shtml                                                        

Lane, Jo Anne (1994) History of Genetics Timeline, Woodrow Wilson Collection, accessed February 14, 2007, http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1994/geneticstln.html

Potential usefulness of preimplantation genetic diagnosis in the control and prevention of genetic diseases (1999) Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal. Accessed February 5, 2007, http://www.emro.who.int/Publications/EMHJ/0506/07.htm

 

,