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JEANS FOR GENES DAY

Today’s the day to pull on your jeans and be part of the Jeans for Genes Day fundraiser which is helping fund vital work at the Children’s Medical research Institute.

Since it was started 25 years ago Jeans for Genes has funded revolutionary research that helps diagnose, understand, and find cures or treatments for conditions affecting children including genetic diseases, cancer, and epilepsy.

One of the most promising areas of research happening at Children’s Medical Research Institute is in the area of gene therapy _ ‘the medicine of the future’ which can cure previously incurable genetic diseases with a single injection to correct the error in the DNA.

Ryan’s mother Laura knows how close research is to helping her two-year-old with cystic fibrosis.

“I think every parent’s worst nightmare is that they lose a child, and so it’s really heart-warming to know that there’s so much support for them,’’ she said.

“My understanding of gene therapy is that, for what it means for me and for Ryan, is that it will change his life. He would not have cystic fibrosis anymore.’’

Dr Leszek Lisowski from Children’s Medical Research Institute sees a future where every child could undergo screening to have disease-causing genes identified and treated without waiting for the child to become sick.

“Gene therapy has the power to fill the gap that has formed and bring real benefits to patients. Ultimately, it is the fact that we are developing therapies which will change peoples’ lives that drives us.’’

Jeans for Genes Day is today, Friday, August 2. You can support research to help the 1 in 20 children living with a genetic disease or birth defect by donating at jeansforgenes.org.au

Since Jeans for Genes began, more than 12,000 schools, 20,000 individuals and 41,000 workplaces have taken part and raised $60 million for vital medical research.

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