Tay-Sachs disease is a genetic disorder that causes progressive neurological degeneration. Although the disease primarily affects infants, juvenile and adult forms of Tay-Sachs disease also exist. Tay-Sachs disease is incurable, and infants with the disease usually die by age four. The defective genes responsible for Tay-Sachs disease are especially prevalent in Jewish people of Eastern European descent, but non-Jewish cases of Tay-Sachs have also been identified. Genetic screening can be performed on persons whose ethnic descent or family history place them at high risk for carrying the defective genes.

Tay-Sachs disease is named for two researchers who first noticed the characteristic symptoms in the 1880s. Tay, an opthamologist, noted the typical eye disorders that occur late in the disease in several infants of Jewish descent. Sachs, a neurologist, identified the neurological disturbances in infants with the disease. By the 1940s, researchers had uncovered the physiological basis...