Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening predominately caucasion, genetic disease affecting approximately 30,000 people in the United States. For people with the disease, a defective gene causes the body to produce a faulty protein that leads to abnormally thick, sticky mucus that clogs the airways and can result in fatal lung infections. The mucus also obstructs the pancreas, causing difficulty for a person to absorb nutrients in food and can block the bile duct in the liver, eventually causing permanent damage in approximately six percent of people with CF.