Riddle of the elephant man.

Aged DNA expert Erika Hagelberg believes that samples taken from Joseph Merrick's bones may shed light onto the condition causing his terrible physical deformities. Meanwhile, descendents of Merrick attempt to discover whether or not a version of Merrick's disease is lurking in the DNA of one of the branches of the family tree. It is currently thought that Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) might be the condition that affected Merrick; we meet a young American man with the condition whose family has been devastated by it. David Nunn, curator at The Royal London Hospital, shows how the bones of Merrick show signs of NF1 but can that alone explain the severity of his deformity? We also hear about Proteus Syndrome, a rare condition caused by a mutated gene - could Merrick have had this condition as well as NF1 or is there an as-yet undiscovered gene mutation? If Merrick had been born today, could surgeons have helped him? And imaging specialists attempt to make a picture of how he would have looked without his deformities.