Mercator other research news

Mercator published the identity of the gene mutation responsible for inherited iron overload disease, whose symptoms of general fatigue and abdominal pain can be hard to diagnose. Hereditary hematochromatosis affects up to 1 million Americans, and can lead to cirrhosis, diabetes, liver cancer, heart failure and arthritis. When diagnosed early, the disease is easy to treat.

As reported in Nature Genetics, the gene was localized to the short arm of chromosome 6. Two mutations allowed diagnosis of 87 percent of the 178 cases in the study. The gene is part of the family of MHC class I proteins. ...