The Summer Knowledge Project

Well, my wife and I recently celebrated the official close of our fundraising season (at least the official close of Team Sam's fundraising season). This doesn't mean that we're totally done, but as another blogger friend suggested, we are going to take a bit of a break. And because of that, I'm going to take a few posts to talk about some other subjects that are dear to me. Some of them might be a bit random, but the following ten topics are what I call the Summer Knowledge Project.

As I promised in my post at the beginning of the year, my goal was to learn about 12 diseases this year...one per month. Well, I've slacked a little, but I have an idea...I'm going to make it a summer project to learn about the ten diseases that make up the autosomal recessive disease spectrum.

It is my hope that you will grow from this study as I do. So, for reference, these are the topics we'll be learning about:

Alpers Syndrome
Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease
Cystic Fibrosis
Sickle Cell Anemia
Spinal Muscular Atrophy type I
Spinal Muscular Atrophy type II
Spinal Muscular Atrophy type III
Tay Sachs
Thalassemia
Usher Syndrome

I don't expect to go so in depth that I end up working toward a doctorate in biological sciences. There are many websites and books that can help with that, some of which I will reference. I simply want to give brief overviews on the topics so that we can begin to learn more about diseases that come about the same way that cystic fibrosis did for my family.

If you happen to be reading this blog and at some point realize that you know someone who suffers from one of these autosomal recessive diseases, or if you are a person who suffers from one of the diseases in this spectrum, please comment and let us know! And more importantly, know that we are thinking about you and praying for you!