Home / Patient information / Genetics and hereditary diseases / Basic concepts of genetics / What are mutations?

Our genes contain changes that don’t have any significant impact on a person’s health.

These changes account for natural variations in people’s features, such as hair or eye color. However, certain changes can affect the functioning of a protein that performs functions of great importance for cells, leading to genetic diseases that can be passed down from generation to generation.

These pathological changes in DNA that lead to genetic diseases we call mutations.