Do you have superhuman genes?

[James Marusek 5,244]

This has nothing to do with bariatric surgery but it was interesting.

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have studied the gene make-up of nearly 600,000 individuals. They were looking for individuals with resistance to any of the roughly 600 Mendelian disorders. These gene mutations normally result in severe grotesque and often deadly conditions such as Pfeiffer syndrome, where the skull bone fuses too early, and epidermolysis bullosa simplex, wherein one's skin becomes as fragile as a butterfly's wing. They found 13 individuals who had one of these genetic mutations but were resistant to the effects. Interesting!

Now they are looking for other volunteers who would be willing to share their health and genetic data in order to identify what protects individuals against these diseases. They have set up a website called the Resilience Project to find volunteers for a follow on study.

http://acsh.org/news/2016/04/21/superhumans-living-despite-having-fatal-genes/

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

Interesting link... but it seems like you would already need to have had your genes "mapped"