CRISPR

Normal red blood cells and a sickle cell RBC (top) found in a blood specimen of an 18-year-old female patient with sickle cell anemia. Photo by Janice Haney Carr / Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia

First CRISPR treatment for sickle cell, other blood disease shows early benefits in two patients

By Sharon Begley, Adam Feuerstein, STAT

Doctors use CRISPR gene editing against cancer for the 1st time in the U.S.

Doctors were able to take immune system cells from the patients' blood and alter them genetically to help them recognize and fight cancer, with minimal and manageable side effects.

By Marilynn Marchione, AP Chief Medical Writer

For the millions of people infected with HIV, the best way to manage the disease is antiretroviral therapy, which can lower the amount of HIV replicating in the body to undetectable levels. But antiretroviral therapy (ART) can only manage HIV, never eliminate it. A new study of mice charts a preliminary path to eliminating this medication dependency, through gene editing with CRISPR. Photo by DigitalGenetics/via Adobe

CRISPR gene-editing ‘eliminates’ HIV in some mice. What does it mean for humans?

Antiretroviral therapy is the standard HIV treatment, but patients are never rid of the virus. A new study raises the possibility of HIV elimination through gene-editing with CRISPR.

By Berly McCoy

‘Jumping genes’ could help CRISPR replace disease-causing DNA, study finds

Researchers describe combining a "jumping gene" with CRISPR enzymes to deliver a a package of DNA to precise addresses in the E. coli genome.

By Sharon Begley, STAT

A snail's shell usually twists to the right, but some snails have mirror-image bodies. In one species of pond snail (not pictured), researchers have pinpointed the gene that causes the snails' twist. Image by Sultan/Adobe

How a snail’s shell gets its twist

Gene-editing with CRISPR reveals why snail shells are asymmetrical and coil either left or right.

By Vicky Stein

NIH director says there’s work to do on regulating genome editing globally

By Lev Facher, STAT

The apparent birth this month of the first genetically modified babies is “a lesson in the potential for human hubris to overtake us,” Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health.

CRISPR causes significantly greater DNA damage than previously thought, study finds

By Sharon Begley, STAT

The DNA damage found in the new study included deletions of thousands of DNA bases, including at spots far from the edit. Some of the deletions can silence genes that should be active and activate genes that should be silent,…

This gene editing milestone raises big ethical questions

By PBS NewsHour

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U.S. scientists are fixing genetic defects in human embryos. Should you be nervous?

By Nsikan Akpan

For the first time, U.S. scientists have genetically edited human embryos with CRISPR, thanks in part to regulatory loopholes.

CRISPR used to store images and a movie inside living bacteria

By Hyacinth Empinado, STAT

Forget iTunes or your old zipper case of DVDs. How about storing movies in a Petri dish of E. coli? All you need is some genetic engineering with CRISPR.