Doctors in US use CRISPR gene editing tool inside patient’s body to treat rare form of blindness

In a world first, doctors at Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science have used the CRISPR gene-editing tool inside the human body, a new frontier for efforts to operate on DNA, the chemical code of life, to treat diseases.

The procedure was recently undertaken at the institute on a patient with an inherited form of blindness. It may take up to a month to see if the procedure was successful in restoring the patient’s vision. If the first few attempts are deemed to be safe doctors plan to test it on 18 further patients.

Charles Albright, chief scientific officer at Editas Medicine, the company developing the treatment, said “We literally have the potential to take people who are essentially blind and make them see.

“We think it could open up a whole new set of medicines to go in and change your DNA.”

Study leader Dr Eric Pierce at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, said “Once the cell is edited, it’s permanent and that cell will persist hopefully for the life of the patients.”

Many scientists believe CRISPR is a significantly easier tool for locating and cutting DNA at a targeted spot, so interest in the new research is high. The same method is also being used to edit cells outside the body to try to treat cancer, sickle cell and other diseases.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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