Researchers in Oxford have been awarded a £120,000 grant to start looking for a cure for a group of often fatal diseases.
Action Research has awarded the money to scientists at the Glycobiology Institute at Oxford University's department of biochemistry, who are studying genetic conditions known as glycosphingolipid storage diseases, which cause havoc with the body's cells.
They include Tay-Sachs disease, which is carried by one in every 250 people and can be passed on to their children. A child with the disease loses one skill after another until they become blind, mentally retarded and paralysed, and dies before their fourth birthday.
The Oxford researchers are developing a new blood test designed to monitor the diseases, which will help evaluate the effectiveness of new drugs used to treat them.
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