Interviewee: Matt Ridley. Mutations in the sequence of the ADA gene (and another gene on the X chromosome called IL2RG) can cause severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). People with SCID are prone to bacterial, viral, and fungal infections. (DNAi Location: Genome > Tour > Genome spots > Chromosome 20: Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) > A Chromosome story)

On chromosome 20 there's a gene for adenosine deaminase. In people in which this gene's not working, the immune system doesn't function properly, and they're vulnerable to infections. Now, some people have been partially cured of this, by gene therapy. That is, replacing the gene with a functioning copy, using a virus – an infectious virus – as a vector. Gene therapy holds a lot of promise, perhaps, but it's proved very difficult in practice to use as a weapon against disease.

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