Genetic samples used to pinpoint cause of asthma

Queensland scientists are trying to pinpoint the cause of asthma by using genetic samples from hundreds of families.

Queensland scientists are trying to pinpoint the cause of asthma by using genetic samples from hundreds of families.Health care costs for asthma patients now exceeds $700 million each year in Australia and the disease can run in families.Genetic epidemiologist at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Dr David Duffy, says it has been 14 years since the first gene believed to be associated with asthma was identified.However, he says it has been a rocky road trying to determine the strength of the association.”Some people don’t find it at all and it’s been very confusing and so we hope that the genetics would be nice and straight forward and we’d have maybe just a few genes that might have quite strong effect,” he said.”In fact it looks like there’s lots of genes and their effects are quite variable so it’s a tricky area to work in.”(Source: ABC Health News, May 2004)