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muscular dystrophy

(Encyclopedia)muscular dystrophy dĭsˈtrōfē [key], any of several inherited diseases characterized by progressive wasting of the skeletal muscles. There are five main forms of the disease. They are classified ac...

Arnold, Frances Hamilton

(Encyclopedia)Arnold, Frances Hamilton, 1956–, American chemical engineer, b. Edgewood, Pa., Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1985. Arnold has been a professor at the California Institute of Technology since ...

cystic fibrosis

(Encyclopedia)cystic fibrosis sĭsˈtĭk fībrōˈsĭs [key], inherited disorder of the exocrine glands (see gland), affecting children and young people; median survival is 25 years in females and 30 years in males...

Mendel, Gregor Johann

(Encyclopedia)Mendel, Gregor Johann grāˈgôr yōˈhän mĕnˈdəl [key], 1822–84, Austrian monk noted for his experimental work on heredity. He entered the Augustinian monastery in Brno in 1843, taught at a loc...

sickle cell disease

(Encyclopedia)sickle cell disease or sickle cell anemia, inherited disorder of the blood in which the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin pigment in erythrocytes (red blood cells) is abnormal. This “hemoglobin-S” crysta...

Giordano, Umberto

(Encyclopedia)Giordano, Umberto jōrdäˈnō [key], 1867–1948, Italian operatic composer. His most famous work is the richly melodic Andrea Chénier (1896). Fedora (1898) and Madame Sans-Gêne (1915) are also we...

Réjane

(Encyclopedia)Réjane rāzhänˈ [key], 1857–1920, stage name of Gabrielle Réju, French actress. After her first success, in Meilhac's Ma Camarade (1883), she grew in reputation as a comedienne. She appeared in ...

Sutherland, Earl Wilbur

(Encyclopedia)Sutherland, Earl Wilbur, 1915–1974, American pharmacologist and physiologist, b. Burlingame, Kans., M.D., Washington Univ. Medical School, 1942. He was a professor at Washington Univ. (1945–53), a...

genetic engineering

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Genetic engineering: Gene-splicing techniques genetic engineering, the use of various methods to manipulate the DNA (genetic material) of cells to change hereditary traits or produce biologica...

cline

(Encyclopedia)cline, in biology, any gradual change in a particular characteristic of a population of organisms from one end of the geographical range of the population to the other. Gradients of characteristics us...