ABSTRACT
A great deal of biological research is directly or indirectly aimed at medical questions. This is just as true with genetics as it is in any other area of biology. Throughout this book we have touched on the relevance of different aspects of genetics to understanding human health and disease. In this chapter we will pull several of these threads together by considering some of the links between genetics and medicine. Our focus will be on the genetic basis of inherited disease and of cancer, and the genetic approaches, such as gene therapy, that are being explored as possible ways of curing these illnesses.
