First patient to use CRISPR to treat sickle cell disease says the technology is alleviating symptoms

A mother-of-four, who is the first American patient to have her genes edited with the controversial CRISPR technology to treat her sickle cell disease, says the technology is working. Victoria Gray, 34, of Forest, Mississippi, has suffered from the debilitating blood disorder her entire life.   She was in so much pain at one point that she … Read more

New coronavirus test uses CRISPR gene-editing too to detect virus

One of the teams that developed the revolutionary (but controversial) gene-editing tool, CRISPR, has retooled it to make a new coronavirus test, scientists at MIT and the Broad Institute announced Tuesday.  The newly-designed test can detect even trace amounts of the virus via either nasal swab or spit sample.  Dr Feng Zhang and his team … Read more

Doctors use CRISPR for the first time to edit blindness gene

Scientists say they have used the gene editing tool CRISPR inside someone’s body for the first time, a new frontier for efforts to operate on DNA, the chemical code of life, to treat diseases. A patient recently had it done at the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland for an … Read more