So it begins. Nobody thought it would happen this fast, and now we are preparing to take a leap into the unknown. Not Brexit but Crispr gene-editing, a DNA-changing technology that can supposedly cure mice of liver disease and muscular dystrophy, render human cells resistant to HIV and create fungus-resistant wheat.
It has also been touted as a means of remaking humanity — and now it is about to progress from Petri dishes into people. An influential advisory panel at the US National Institutes of Health has unanimously approved the first clinical trial to use Crispr genome-editing (also known as gene-editing) on humans, to reboot immune cells in cancer patients. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania will target patients with multiple myeloma, melanoma or sarcoma. The team will remove a class of immune cells called T-cells from patients, edit the genes of those T-cells so they are better able to “lock on” to tumour cells, and then restore the altered T-cells back into the bloodstream.
With luck, the genetic edits should boost the patient’s immune system. The study, now expected to receive the blessing of federal regulators, will be funded by a cancer institute founded by Sean Parker of Napster and Facebook fame.