The alcoholic gene
being a barfly is most of the times associated to bad upbringing or other social reasons. A few years back, some scientists had taken up the task of associating alcoholism to a gene. The scientists had to confront disappointment day after day when they read the news: a gene found for breast cancer, a gene found for cystic fibrosis, a gene found for muscular dystrophy. But none for alcohol abuse.
The only finding to the credit of the scientists, achieved a few years back, also fell apart in confirmatory reports. The finding suggested that a faulty brain-protein gene goaded some people to alcoholism. Although the disease is among the most prevalent and costly in the world, there is no clear understanding of its molecular underpinnings and neither is there any scientific way to prevent or treat it.
But this apparently hapless situation might change in the near future. A collaborative effort underway for the past seven years, is about to bear fruit. The first results of the study: a map of genetic