The inability to sweat turns every hot day or active play into a potential for heatstroke -- a danger Radley has been grappling with for his entire life. And Maynard is unable to spend more than a couple of minutes on a treadmill before having to immerse her head in water to cool off.
Fingerprint specialist Bill Reeves works for the Fairfax County Police department in Virginia, and has access to approximately 5 million prints. "Primetime" took Maynard to see him, without informing Reeves about her condition until after he tried to take her prints.
Unable to see decent images of her prints, Reeves brought up another troubling implication of her condition.
"As our society comes to embrace more biometric access for security, that could create some havoc for her," he said.
In a world that is increasingly conscious of security and of proof of identity, not having fingerprints can present a number of problems. So what, if anything, can be done?
The Maynards have given tissue samples to researchers at Rambam Hospital in Israel to try to figure out why these mutations occur, and that research has led to a recent breakthrough. The researchers have identified the gene responsible for Maynard's disorder -- which could help them determine how to treat the condition, and could have implications for skin cancer research as well.
While treatment is extremely far off, Maynard and her family are heartened by the possibility.
Radley has something to look forward to as well.
Apoxis, a Swiss company, has created a gene therapy to correct many issues involved with his disorder, and the company hopes to begin human trials in two years. If the trials are successful, this therapy could help improve development of teeth, hair and sweat glands for people that suffer from this E-D.
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