What is WS?

What is Williams Syndrome?

Williams Syndrome was discovered by Dr. J.C.P. Williams in 1961. He realized Williams Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by a deletion of a section of chromosomes after noticing many of the patients who came to him to have open heart surgery were characterized by similar physical and personality traits. When a section of the genes is dismissed or missing, it causes Williams Syndrome. It is possible individuals can be more affected than others by the illness, because the length of the deletion varies. If we compare the length of the strand to numbers, let’s say there are 100 different pieces. In one carrier, 23-34 may be deleted and this person may be hardly hampered. If in another 12-76 are deleted, this person will be more disabled from the disorder than the first because more sections were deleted. To the right is what the DNA strand looks like before and after the deletion of the chromosome. 

Stanford University conducts studies on the neural system part of Williams Syndrome, their website might also be of some help if you are researching Williams Syndrome. Williams Syndrome at Stanford