Searching for Genes They May Protect Against Deadly Diseases

When researchers explore the human genome, they usually look for genetic causes of disease, but a global study being led by scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Sage Bionetworks is looking for genes that might keep people healthy. Their study, the largest genome study to date, seeks to find people with genetic mutations that should have caused rare childhood diseases, but didn’t. Dubbed the Resilience Project, they are looking for clues in these genomes for why these people never became stricken. We spoke to Jason Bobe, associate professor and director of the Sharing Lab at the Icahn Institute and Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, about the study, what’s been learned so far, and how this may lead to new treatments for rare and deadly diseases.