ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 6, 1996 TAG: 9611060056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO
SOURCE: San Francisco Examiner
An international scientific team from Europe, Canada, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and Stanford University announced the discovery.
Eventually, the discovery might allow doctors to identify people who are genetically predisposed to familial hemiplegic migraine, a rare form of the disease.
The credit for the discovery goes to scientists at Leiden University in the Netherlands who made the find using genetic data supplied by Lawrence Livermore scientists.
The Dutch researchers traced the gene in five families with a history of familial hemiplegic migraine.
The gene is located on chromosome 19, one of the human body's 46 chromosomes. Lawrence Livermore scientists have specialized in mapping genes on chromosome 19.
The report appears in Friday's issue of the science journal Cell.
Familial hemiplegic migraine is a ``very rare'' form of the ailment, said Harvey Mohrenweiser, senior biomedical scientist at Lawrence Livermore's Human Genome Center. It brings - besides the usual severe headache - partial paralysis of the arm, face or other parts of the body.
The find won't cure familial hemiplegic migraine - yet. ``But we've opened the door to move in that direction,'' Mohrenweiser said.
LENGTH: Short : 37 linesby CNB