Doctors use CRISPR gene-editing technology directly in a patient for the first time

For the first time, CRISPR gene editing technology has been used directly inside a patient, doctors say. Though it could take a month to see if the move was a success, scientists are optimistic.

The CRISPR technique has previously been used on cells that were removed from a patient's body, modified, then infused back inside the body. But this time, doctors at the Casey Eye Institute in Portland used the gene-editing technique directly in a patient blinded with Leber congenital amaurosis, with the hopes of restoring their vision, reports NPR.

Doctors injected the patient's eye with fluid containing copies of the virus carrying the CRISPR gene-editing instructions, which should remove the defect that caused blindness, restoring vision.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The patient is the first in a study that hopes to determine whether it is safe to inject CRISPR into the eye. The study is still in its early stages, and will eventually involve 18 patients, per NPR. If successful, a similar approach could help treat various brain disorders and muscle diseases.

"We're helping open, potentially, an era of gene-editing for therapeutic use that could have impact in many aspects of medicine," Eric Pierce, study leader and professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, told NPR.

Read more at NPR.