New Gene Editing Technique CRISPR To Be Used In Humans

A federal advisory committee is finally planning to review the proposal to use the controversial gene editing technique CRISPR on human patients. This is the first time that a federal advisory committee has decided to act on the proposal since the conception of the gene editing tool.

According to reports, the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee is planning to examine an experiment that treated cancer patients using the controversial Cas9/CRISPR technique. That is, the panel from the National Institutes of Health will review the experiment that used the gene editing tool to treat the cancer patients.

In the experiment, the researchers extracted T-cells from the body of the cancer patients, Next, they used the CRISPR technique to genetically modify the extracted T-cells, which were later put back into the body of the patients. The modified T-cells specifically targeted the sarcoma, myeloma and melanoma tumor cells.

The proposal to review the experiment has been submitted be a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. Even though a biotechnology company called Editas Medicine had initially decided to conduct its own CRISPR trials in the year 2017, it looks like the University of Pennsylvania researchers will reach the target first.

While gene editing has already been practiced on humans before, the use of the new CRISPR/Cas9 technique is relatively easy and efficient to use. It acts as a cheap and powerful gene editing tool.

The genetic alterations made by the researchers during the experiments are only somatic and not germline. This means that any alteration made in the genetic pool of the patient is limited to the body of the patient itself and won't be inherited in the future generation.

The experiment, therefore, complies with the NIH guidelines on use of CRISPR that states that the results of the tool application should not interfere with the human gene pool.