Genetics of childhood disorders: LI. Learning and memory, Part 4: Human cognitive disorders and the ras/ERK/CREB pathway.

741 It is difficult to overstate the likely impact of recent advances in mammalian genetic engineering. The ability to engineer the mammalian genome will eventually rank along with splitting the atom, developing the computer, and inventing the printing press in its impact on the human condition. If taken to its limits, genetic engineering could allow us to restructure ourselves at the molecular level—a thought both ethically sobering and medically promising. Emerging genetic engineering technologies allow us to delete, mutate, and overexpress mammalian genes in a variety of animal models. It is also possible to introduce genes from one species into another, thereby adding to its cellular milieu a new Genetics of Childhood Disorders: LI. Learning and Memory, Part 4: Human Cognitive Disorders and the ras/ERK/CREB Pathway