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 at the West China Hospital, also in Chengdu.
Earlier clinical trials using cells edited with a different technique have excited clinicians. The introduction of CRISPR, which is simpler and more efficient than other techniques, will probably accelerate the race to get gene-edited cells into clinics across the world, says Carl June, who specializes in immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and led one of the earlier studies.
"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.
http://www.nature.com/news/crispr-gene-editing-tested-in-a-person-for-the-first-time-1.20988
(Score: 4, Interesting) by requerdanos on Thursday November 17 2016, @04:01AM
Sounds good, as long as nobody's allowed to "patent" the edited genes, preventing anyone else from saving anyone's life with them.
Genes are sequences of four distinct encapsulated molecules (nucleotides) based on adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine (in the case of DNA - RNA varies slightly), repeated over and over. I can assure you that any person or corporation that just rearranges them did not invent any of them (they had to already exist to be rearranged) and imo should not be able to patent them.
I know that there are already "gene patents," but then again there's also a patent on using a laser pointer to "exercise" a cat, prima facie evidence that having a patent isn't the same as having a patent that should ever have been granted.