Gene Hunter

Renowned female scientist hunts for the gene behind the disease that has ravaged her family and threatens her own future. For readers who were gripped by The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

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Nancy Wexler is known as a leader in the decades long quest to find a cure for Huntington's disease (described by some as akin to a combination of ALS, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's). Nancy's mother was diagnosed at age 53. Her diagnosis, coming just twelve years after that of her three brothers, led her to retreat into depression and attempt suicide. It robbed Nancy and her sister of their mother. It seemed to Nancy that her family was cursed. But for Nancy's father it was the catalyst for creating The Hereditary Disease Foundation. The hunt for a cure would become the focus of their lives.

Gene Hunter follows Nancy's race to understand the disease that has come to dominate her family's history. Her story takes us from the heart of Hollywood to Venezuela where the secrets of the disease's DNA would eventually be found.

Nancy's groundbreaking work not only helped identify the gene but also enabled the mapping of other disease genes, including those responsible for familial Alzheimer's disease, kidney cancer, two kinds of neurofribromatosis, ALS, dwarfism and countless others.

In 2020 Nancy publicly announced in The New York Times that she too suffers from the very same disease she has been studying all her life. The stigma surrounding it is still very much alive but the early symptoms had started to appear (the tiny random body movements, the affected speech). Nancy tells her story as an affirmation of life - her own and other's. Her mind is blazing with ideas and the fight continues.