It's Ted Tossali, I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

It's pretty wild to think that a single extra letter in DNA can lead to disease and early

death.

But cellular researcher Anna Greka is doing something about this.

In her Ted 2023 talk, she explains how researchers can solve medical mysteries through molecular

level sleuthic and the promise that it holds after a break.

I'd like to begin by telling you a story.

It's a short story about a special family.

In 1960, a Utah man by the name of Roscoe Nelson, a father of six, died suddenly of unknown

cause.

He was 43 years old.

As a surgeon himself, Dr. Nelson knew that his progressive kidney failure would ultimately

take his life, but he was in the dark as to the cause and he had no access to treatment.

Within two decades, tragedy struck again when four of Roscoe's six children also developed

kidney failure.

Looking back, as far back as the 1800s, every generation in this family has been struck

down at a young age by a mysterious and vicious disease.

What could be the cause?

Fast forward to 2013, a team of brilliant geneticists identified the cause of Roscoe

Nelson's deadly disease.

It was a mutation, a single extra letter in the DNA hiding in a dark corner of a gene called

Mach 1.

...