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: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday November 17 2016, @04:12PM
It'll be an easy win for China, since it won't have all the regulatory overhead that the US has, and an FDA which takes decades to approve things.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday November 18 2016, @02:16AM
And not just regulatory overhead, but also serious political opposition from the religious right. Say what you like about godless communists, they aren't afraid to crack some fucking eggs when there are freaky genetically engineered omelettes to be made. I hypothesize that if the US wins the GMO arms race it will be done using their enormous black budget; the proles can be filled in on the details once the war is won... if the war ends.
I'm not opposed to GMOs, in case anybody reads this the wrong way.