Bloom syndrome

Bloom syndrome (often abbreviated as BS in literature), also known as Bloom-Torre-Machacek syndrome, is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by short stature, predisposition to the development of cancer and genomic instability. BS is caused by mutations in the BLM gene leading to mutated DNA helicase protein formation. Cells from a person with Bloom syndrome exhibit a striking genomic instability that includes excessive crossovers between homologous chromosomes and sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs). The condition was discovered and first described by New York dermatologist Dr. David Bloom in 1954.