By Dennis Drayna, Ph.D.
NIDCD
Research on genetic factors in stuttering moved ahead in November
with meetings between researchers at the National Institute on Deafness
and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and scientists at the Centre
of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) at the University of Punjab,
in Lahore, Pakistan.
The NIDCD team was led by Dr. Dennis Drayna, who met with university
officials and Dr. S. Riazuddin, the director of the CEMB, to coordinate
the identification and sampling of Pakistani families with multiple
cases of stuttering.
Traditional marriage customs in Pakistan result in frequent
marriages between cousins, giving the Pakistani population a relatively
high degree of inbreeding. Such inbreeding can bring out genetic
disorders in families and make them more accessible for study by
scientists. The NIDCD-/CEMB collaboration is further reinforced by the
participation of Mr. Hashim Raza, a Ph.D. student enrolled at the
University of Punjab, who is pursuing his thesis research on stuttering
in Dr. Drayna’s laboratory at the NIDCD.
“Our previous stuttering research in Pakistan has made significant
progress, and on this visit I had the chance to meet a number of our
research subjects, which was wonderful. We also identified several new
families in which there are many cases of stuttering, providing
important resources for our future work,” said Dr. Drayna.
The overall goal of genetic research on stuttering is to identify
the specific genetic alterations that give rise to stuttering in some
families, to better understand the fundamental causes of the disorder.
A better understanding of the causes of stuttering may lead to improved
diagnosis and treatment, and provide new avenues for research in speech
disorders.
