I am a long-time science writer/textbook author with a PhD in genetics. My first narrative nonfiction book, "The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It," was published by St. Martin's Press in March 2012. The story of a lifetime, The Forever Fix tells the tale of 8-year-old Corey Haas, who screamed at the Philadelphia zoo on a sunny Sunday in September 2008 when he looked up, seeing for the first time, four days following gene therapy. Nine years earlier an 18-year-old died of gene therapy, also in four days, in the same city, shutting down the field. I am in awe of the families and researchers who let me into their lives to write this book.

I'm author of co-author of several textbooks for McGraw-Hill Higher Education, most recently the 10th edition of Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications. I've also published an essay collection, a novel about stem cells, and a short Human Genetics book with Routledge Press in 2010. I published thousands of magazine articles, back in the days before blogs, when assignments were plentiful. I'm a genetic counselor (since 1984) for a large ob/gyn practice in Schenectady NY, a hospice volunteer, and I teach "Genethics" online for Albany Medical College (Alden March Bioethics Institute). My blog, Genetic Linkage, is at www.rickilewis.com