First U.S. Patients Treated With CRISPR As Gene-Editing Human Trials Get Underway
This could be a crucial year for the powerful gene-editing technique CRISPR as researchers start testing it in patients to treat diseases such as cancer, blindness, and sickle cell disease.
The powerful gene-editing technique called CRISPR has been in the news a lot. And not all the news has been good: A Chinese scientist stunned the world last year when he announced he had used CRISPR to create genetically modified babies.
But scientists have long hoped CRISPR — a technology that allows scientists to make very precise modification to DNA — could eventually help cure many diseases. And now scientists are taking tangible first steps to make that dream a reality.
For example, NPR has learned that a U.S. CRISPR study that had in at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia has finally started. A university spokesman Monday confirmed for the first time that two patients had been treated using CRISPR.
