The Case Of The Girl Who Couldn't Feel Pain
In a Cast A nurse checks on a child with a cast, 1963 CDC/Charles Farmer A team of European researchers finds the genetic mutation responsible for a subject's inability to feel pain. "Index Subject 1"-the anonymous girl or woman who participated in this new study-is unusual in a couple of ways. For one thing, she cannot feel pain. It's a dangerous condition for her. Photos published in a paper about her show severe injuries to her head, face and knee, the latter of which she has fractured multiple times. For another, she has a super-rare gene mutation, which the scientists couldn't find in any of the human genome databases they scoured. That gene mutation, the researchers think, is what protects Index Subject 1 from pain. Index Subject 1's story is a cool bit of genetic sleuthing. It could also help her in the future: If a single mutation really is the root of most...