Marked with an X: real-life X-Men
Who among us hasn't pondered which superpower they would have, given the choice? Marvel comics ignited our imaginations but real-life 'mutants' are already among us. Jake Wallis Simons reports
In 1963, when comic-book legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the X-Men, they could have had no idea what they had spawned. At the time, Spider-Man, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four were hogging the limelight, and the motley team of mutants struggled to attract a readership.
Fast-forward four decades, and six X-Men films have grossed more than US$2 billion worldwide. Last week, the seventh in the franchise, , was released in Hong Kong.
Clearly the concept of genetically mutated superhumans has captured the popular imagination. In the Marvel universe, mutation allows the X-Men to create ice formations, generate flames or emit "concussion beams". Disappointingly for comic-book fans, there is no equivalent in the real world. But there are a surprising number of people who - by way of genetic mutation - have acquired abilities that could comfortably be classed as superhuman.
In 2006, scientists at Britain's Cambridge University discovered a young Pakistani street performer who was able to cut himself with knives without experiencing pain. Upon investigation, they found that the boy was one of a handful of local people who had a defect in a gene called SCN9A meaning that pain did not flow from the nerves to the brain. Researchers are currently studying whether this may provide the key to treating chronic pain conditions.
Similarly, a biotech company called Chiroscience is developing an osteoporosis drug based on the study of a community in South Africa that has exceptionally strong and dense bones on account of a "bone mass gene".
Earlier this year UCB, a Belgian pharmaceutical company, launched a competition to find more such superhumans, in the belief that their extraordinary genetic make-up could form the basis of new medicines.
"Individuals or groups who exhibited exceptional wound healing warrant further investigation," said Dr Duncan McHale, UCB's vice president of global exploratory development. He is also interested in "those who have consistently displayed exceptional resistance or immunity to infections, or who, after a robust clinical diagnosis, displayed unusually fast or spontaneous disease remission".
