“For the first time, researchers have infused a person’s blood with gene-editing tools, aiming to treat his severe inherited disease, The Associated Press (AP) reported today. The 44-year-old patient has a rare metabolic disorder called Hunter syndrome. But how big is the advance—and what does it mean for using hot new technologies such as CRISPR to help people with other genetic diseases?”
This is absolutely huge!!
“However, this is the first time ZFNs (zinc finger nucleases) have been used directly to modify DNA in living patients—so-called in vivo gene editing. This is more complicated than editing cell’s DNA in a lab dish. For one thing, researchers must use a viral vector to ferry DNA encoding the ZFNs and the new gene into the liver cells.”
This has been way faster than I would have expected. I thought CRISPR-like technology wouldn’t be used before long (10-20 years) but it’s already happening. I hope it works well for this guy.
What I find fascinating, extraordinary I should say, is that this technology is already being used in humans. What this means is that CRISPR is almost mature for human use. I thought it would take 10 more years before anything like this happened.
I think it would be experimenting on small size so far …i think it will take another 50 years to be experimenting on sz on human…lets hope sonner it comes…
Yeah, I think it’s more reflective of the technology if it works for the fellow with Hunter syndrome or the butterfly boy, than Zayner. He is a smart guy, but his experiment is not really controlled enough to definitely say it works or does not or is safe or is not.