• Question: Could your work on this skin condition help eliminate it forever?

    Asked by iggy.s to Hephzi, Tom on 6 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by UNKNOWN ANONYMOUS, SWAGYLlama123, Alisha.
    • Photo: Hephzi Tagoe

      Hephzi Tagoe answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      @iggy.s That’s a really good question. The condition (hyperkeratossis) itself is not an actual disease but like a symptom of several skin diseases. My work could help eliminate this sympton but not necessarily the disease associated with it. For example, if the disease is caused by a gene defect, my work will not stop the gene going wrong but once it’s gone wrong so your skin is affected, my research can hopefully treat the skin but not anything else that may also have gone wrong.

    • Photo: Thomas Barrett

      Thomas Barrett answered on 18 Mar 2015:

      Hey Iggy.s,

      I unfortunately don’t work on skin conditions. That is well and truly Hephzi’s domain. However the amount of medical advances that come out of space research to keep the astronauts safe is amazing! from artificial limbs to helping in heart transplants. It is possible (however unlikely) that some by product of looking at how astronauts skin holds up to a very controlled climate in space may help treat the symptoms but its very unlikely we will cure it without people working on it specifically (like Hephzi’s).

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