A Chinese group has become the first to inject a person with cells that contain genes edited using the revolutionary CRISPR–Cas9 technique.
On 28 October, a team led by oncologist Lu You at Sichuan University in Chengdu delivered the modified cells into a patient with aggressive lung cancer as part of a clinical trial….
Earlier clinical trials using cells edited with a different technique have excited clinicians. The introduction of CRISPR…will probably accelerate the race to get gene-edited cells into the clinic across the world, says Carl June, who specializes in immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia….
“I think this is going to trigger ‘Sputnik 2.0’, a biomedical duel on progress between China and the United States, which is important since competition usually improves the end product,” he says.
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Lu says that the treatment went smoothly, and that the participant will get a second injection, but declined to give details because of patient confidentiality. The team plans to treat a total of ten people, who will each receive either two, three or four injections.
Other oncologists are excited about CRISPR’s entry onto the cancer scene. “The technology to be able to do this is incredible,” says Naiyer Rizvi of Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: CRISPR gene-editing tested in a person for the first time
