Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have discovered the gene for a form of Joubert Syndrome, a condition present before birth that affects an area of the brain controlling balance and coordination in about 1 in 10,000 individuals. Their study, published in the November 2004 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics*, pointed to mutations in a gene called AHI1 that lead to the production of a protein the scientists named Jouberin.Separate research by a team from Harvard Medical School concurrently identified the same gene in a paper published in the November 2004 issue of the journal Nature Genetics.** Both the UCSD and Harvard studies were published online prior to the print publications in November.
