Alterations in leukemia gene related to a childhood growth disorder

According to a new research conducted at The Institute of Cancer Research have discovered that the alterations in a gene is associated with the leukaemia can lead to a newly described problem that actually affects the growth and intellectual development of a child. Further it was found that alteration in DNA methyltransferase gene, DNMT3A, in 13 children. The research was published in the journal Nature Genetics. This could be harmful to them in later stage. Scientists are quiet worried about the situation. One of the co-researcher, Dr Katrina Tatton-Brown, Clinical Researcher at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Consultant Geneticist at St George's, University of London, explains, “Having a diagnosis can make a real difference to families – I recently gave the result back to one of the families in which we identified a DNMT3A mutation and they greatly appreciated having a reason for their daughter's condition after many years of uncertainty.”