The phrase "gene defect" is correct and can be used in written English.
Example sentence: "The patient has a gene defect that prevents his body from producing the necessary proteins."
Even then, a possible carrier of the gene defect may not be tested.
His electrocardiogram showed long-QT syndrome, and genetic testing revealed a gene defect known to cause the heart problem.
(The aim was to correct the gene defect that causes the blood disorder beta-thalassaemia and non-viable embryos, which couldn't have resulted in live birth, were used).
Only later is it revealed that the child, featured in the health select committee report on obesity, had a gene defect.
PAGE A8 Self-Help for a Gene Defect In a discovery that poses a puzzle for evolutionary theory, researchers say they have found plants that possess a corrected version of a defective gene inherited from their parents.
The problem arises when we consider giving a statin to healthy people, who have no apparent cholesterol gene defect or evidence of heart disease, in the hope it will prevent a future heart attack.
If you have a gene defect that causes a very high cholesterol level – a condition called familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) – then you are at very high risk of a heart attack.
The striking thing about the case, the researchers said, was that neither parent had the gene defect, which therefore must have developed in the child as a spontaneous mutation.
But he passed a serious gene defect to five of those children, a blood disease that leaves them at risk for leukemia and in need of daily shots of an expensive drug to prevent infections.
Professor Sian Harding, head of the British Heart Foundation Centre of Regenerative Medicine at Imperial College London, who helped develop the treatment, said: "It's important to remember that the therapy is not correcting a gene defect.
Animals with the human gene defect grow bigger and bigger muscles -- some, like cats, can become so muscular that even their tongues get huge, unable to fit in their mouths.
