Nic Volker case highlighted at U.S. Senate hearing

In budget testimony before a Senate subcommittee this morning, National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins singled out the case of Nic Volker, the young Monona boy whose genes were sequenced in 2009 and used to devise a treatment, saying his story “demonstrates the benefits to be reaped from our continued pursuit of ‘personalized medicine.’ “Pressing for the establishment of a new NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Collins described in detail how Volker suffered from “a mysterious, life-threatening disease that ravaged his intestines, making it impossible for him to eat normally and causing unimaginable pain and suffering.” (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 5/12)