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The Telegraph
First genetically modified humans could exist within two years
Biotech company Editas Medicine is planning to start human trials to genetically edit genes and reverse blindness
Humans
who have had their DNA genetically modified could exist within two
years after a private biotech company announced plans to start the first
trials into a ground-breaking new technique.
Editas
Medicine, which is based in the US, said it plans to become the first
lab in the world to ‘genetically edit’ the DNA of patients suffering
from a genetic condition – in this case the blinding disorder ‘leber
congenital amaurosis’.
The disorder
prevents normal function of the retina; the light-sensitive layer of
cells at the back of the eye. It appears at birth or in the first months
of life and eventually sufferers can go completely blind.
“Hereditary eye disease in an obvious place to start given that there is already precedent in classical gene therapy"
Professor Darren Griffin, University of Kent
The rare inherited disease is caused by defects in a gene which instructs the creation of a protein that is essential to vision.
But scientists at Editas Medicine in the US believe they can fix the mutated DNA using the ground-breaking gene-editing technology Crispr.
Katrine Bosley, the chief executive of Editas Medicine, told a conference in the US that the company hopes to start trialling the technology on blind patients in 2017.
It would be the first time the technology has been used on humans. Gene editing is currently banned in the US, so the company would need special permission from health regulators.
“It feels fast, but we are going at the pace science allows,” Bosley told the EmTech conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
But scientists at Editas Medicine in the US believe they can fix the mutated DNA using the ground-breaking gene-editing technology Crispr.
Katrine Bosley, the chief executive of Editas Medicine, told a conference in the US that the company hopes to start trialling the technology on blind patients in 2017.
It would be the first time the technology has been used on humans. Gene editing is currently banned in the US, so the company would need special permission from health regulators.
“It feels fast, but we are going at the pace science allows,” Bosley told the EmTech conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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