The work, they said, began decades ago with federal funding for basic research on bacterial immune systems. That led eventually, with more federal support, to the discovery of CRISPR. Federal investment in sequencing the human genome made it possible to identify KJ’s mutation. U.S. funding supported Dr. Liu’s lab and its editing discovery. A federal program to study gene editing supported Dr. Musunuru’s research. Going along in parallel was federally funded work that led to an understanding of KJ’s disease.
Magic
Science
…Although at the rate we are going it may well be referred to as such in the stories told about “the before times” as people huddle around the fire.
Magical science?
Illnesses like KJ’s are the result of a single mutation — an incorrect DNA letter among the three billion in the human genome. Correcting it requires pinpoint targeting in an approach called base editing.
To accomplish that feat, the treatment is wrapped in fatty lipid molecules to protect it from degradation in the blood on its way to the liver, where the edit will be made. Inside the lipids are instructions that command the cells to produce an enzyme that edits the gene. They also carry a molecular GPS — CRISPR — which was altered to crawl along a person’s DNA until it finds the exact DNA letter that needs to be changed.
Begun, the Eugenics Wars have…
This isn’t news. We were custom editing jeans way back in the 80’s. My sister had a bedazzler.
Yay now our rich corrupt masters will live even longer!
There’s 0% chance this becomes accessible to the regular person under our current global oligarchy
It took place after Trump was inaugurated, therefore it’s his success.
No /s, because you know he’s goign to take credit for it
Honestly, give the bastard credit if he uses this as a reason to stop gutting research and continue supporting it. I mean, won’t happen, but I’m definitely sharing this article with every single trumpet I know.
