Fragile X's Unwelcome Relative

摘要

Randi Hageiman may be the only pediatrician to discover a disease that strikes in old age. Hagerman specializes in treating children with Fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of mental retardation Several years ago, she began to notice something odd when she chatted with her patients' parents. "Typically, the moms would bring the children in to see Randi, and in the course of the discussion, the moms would say, 'I'm concerned about my father: He's falling down a lot,'" says molecular biologist Paul Hagerman, Randi's husband and research collaborator. "This was a pattern she would hear over and over".