Monkey See

The news wires are abuzz about the use of gene therapy to correct colorblindness in a monkey named Dalton. Yes, named after the famed chemist, who in addition to inventing the miners safety lamp, training Faraday, being the first to isolate a few alkali metals, writing books about his travels and fishing, also studied colorblindness. (And I can't teach, do research, do some service, and keep this blog up!)

Way back when I took quant my colorblindness was a challenge that cost me more than a few points on precision. The one titration I could do was Bromocresol green. A bear of a titration for most people since the endpoint is at the green point between yellow and blue colors. Not being able to see the green I could titrate from color to clear to color. Unfortunately my instructor suggested that no one could achieve the precision and accuracy I attained and failed me on the lab anyway. I pointed out my colorblindness advantage and offered to titrate a sample of her choosing any time she wanted to test me but she never took me up one the offer.

I wonder when the human gene therapy for colorblindness trials start.

T.S. Hall