The article focuses on inherited diseases, but that is a proving ground for the later, larger market of enhancement. An order of magnitude more healthy people w

The article focuses on inherited diseases, but that is a proving ground for the later, larger market of enhancement. An order of magnitude more healthy people will be willing to undergo gene therapy to gain greater muscle mass and less fat tissue (myostatin / follistatin) or greater stem cell activity (telomerase) than is the case for patients with serious inherited conditions willing to undergo gene therapy. The breakthrough waiting to take place is the development of a methodology of reliable transfection of large enough number of cells to produce the desired outcome in adults. That seems to be not that far away, but it isn't the case today; the gene delivery mechanisms work, but that isn't the same thing as succeeding in altering a sufficient number of cells every time. This is one of the reasons why there are no clinics offering enhancement gene therapies via medical tourism. That will happen soon, however, in a similar pattern to that followed for stem cell therapies at the outset of their clinical availability.