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Gene Therapy Cures "Bubble Boy"

bofh31337 writes "NewScientist is reporting that Welsh boy Rhys Evans has been cured of the fatal severe combined immunodeficiency ("bubble boy") disease. The medical team, lead by Adrian Thrasher, was able to take the stem cells that give rise to immune cells from his bone marrow and add a normal copy of the gene to the stem cell using a retro virus. Seven months after treatment, Rhys was cured."

11 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Science blows my mind by York+the+Mysterious · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Science blows my mind. Too bad theres bad stuff that happens as well as good

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    Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
  2. Re:Guess I was wrong! by The+Wooden+Badger · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Wouldn't he already be clear if he was a "bubble boy".

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    Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
  3. That's Funny... (OT) by ejungle · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    That was a rather heart-warming tale, as I'm an OpenBSD user myself. However, I must take issue with one statement:

    We had previously been running OpenBSD on all our quad processor Xeons.

    I wasn't aware that OpenBSD had gained SMP functionality. In fact, I'm quite certain it has not. Much to the dismay of myself and others mind you.

    So may I ask, is this some sort of "anti-troll"?

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    Remember: umount it before you fsck it.
  4. It was the Moops by jvollmer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    It says MOOPS!... I'll kill you!

  5. Oh Man! by CleverNickName · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Okay, I'm happy for The Bubble Boy, and everything...but I was really hoping to get some good PR by playing cards with him someday.

    I was even going to let him win.

    Dammit.

  6. (half-OT) GOSH owns Peter Pan by yerricde · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    By the way, GOSH (Great Ormond Street Hospital) owns a perpetual copyright on James M. Barrie's Peter Pan works. No, it's not a 95-year copyright or a life+70 copyright. It's a perpetual copyright, recognized by the Berne treaty. (Read More...) When Disney brings Peter Pan II to Region 2 (where European copyrights are more strictly enforced), GOSH is going to make a wad of dough on royalties, giving Disney a taste of its own medicine.


    (posted without bonus because it's only tangential to the article)
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    Will I retire or break 10K?
  7. ROTFLMAO by astr0boy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ROTFLMAO i live in mason city, iowa. come get me.

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    so i says to mable, i says

  8. Re:No cure by Jouster · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    It isn't "on-topic" for the article, but it's on-topic for the thread!
    That kind of shit can only come from the damaged brain of AOL. Go away. You ruined the Usenet and I'm still fucking bitter about it. If I see ROTFLMAO again I swear somebody is really going to be rolling on the floor, trying to hold their guts in.
    However bitter you may think you are, I'm more so. They also screwed up MUDs and brought in the current state of spelling and punctuation ("omg i cant believ its u, girl").

    Jouster
  9. Re:Guess I was wrong! by packeteer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    haha i would say that THAT was definetly on topic because he was posting about another on topic post... anyway if anyone is off topic it is ME because im just trying to whopre for some karma and maybe hope for a turn around in the moderation and get some +funyn goodness... moid ME down if you have the GUTS^H^H^H^H spare mod points...

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    unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
  10. Re:No cure by Jouster · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    My sincere apologies, AC, you are correct.

    Of course, if it were a hacker speaking, you'd see |}3|_33\/.

    Jouster

  11. Pity Seinfeld has finished by Sapphon · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I was looking forward to the episode where the Bubble-Boys Bubble-Friends emerge from their bubbles and take revenge on George.
    I picture them beating him with Trivial Pursuit boards while shouting "Moors! It was the moors! Not moops goddammit, say moors!"

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    Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem.