China begins gene editing trial

[1oldman2]

I came across this article, thought it was worth mentioning.
http://www.nature.com/news/[URL='ht...chnologies-wont-lead-designer-babies/']crispr-gene-editing-tested-in-a-person-for-the-first-time-1.20988[/URL]

A Chinese group has become the first to inject a person with cells that contain genes edited using the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas9 technique.

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 the clinic across the world, says Carl June, who specializes in immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and led one of the earlier studies.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

What was holding back American scientists from trying this first?

 

[1oldman2]

What was holding back American scientists from trying this first?

Hi, It seems China is enjoying an advantage over the U.S. as far as Government support in most all areas of Technology. I would bet the timing of the Chinese announcement was mainly about setting a precedent in tech related "stuff", not really a problem when government, industry as well as science are on the same page. We unfortunately don't share this advantage at the moment, however things can change... this gets political quickly so I'll drop it here.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/...chnologies-wont-lead-designer-babies/']crispr-gene-editing-to-be-tested-on-people-by-2017-says-editas/[/URL]

Speaking this week at the EmTech conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Editas CEO Katrine Bosley said the company hopes to start a clinical trial in 2017 to treat a rare form of blindness using CRISPR, a groundbreaking gene-editing technology.http://www.nature.com/news/first-[U...chnologies-wont-lead-designer-babies/']crispr-clinical-trial-gets-green-light-from-us-panel-1.20137[/URL]

"Cell therapies [for cancer] are so promising but the majority of people who get these therapies have a disease that relapses," says study leader Edward Stadtmauer, a physician at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Gene editing could improve such treatments and eliminate some of their vulnerabilities to cancer and the body’s immune system, he says.

During the RAC meeting, one of the committee’s greatest concerns was a potential conflict of interest. Among other financial involvements, June has ties to the pharmaceutical company Novartis, holds patents on T-cell technologies, and could stand to benefit from the success of this trial. June declined to give details on the exact nature of his conflicts of interest, but says that his university is taking steps to manage it, such as preventing him from being involved in selecting patients.statnews.com/2016/06/16/crispr-first-human-trial-cancer/

This is promising.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...chnologies-wont-lead-designer-babies/']crispr-idUSKBN13300A[/URL]

Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have used the CRISPR gene editing tool to repair the gene that causes sickle cell disease in stem cells from diseased patients, paving the way for a potential cure for the disease, which affects up to 5 million people globally.

"We think we have a complete data set to present to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to say we've done all pre-clinical experiments to show this is ready for a clinical trial," Porteus told Reuters by phone.