CRISPR and Cancer

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Anchor lead: The gene
editing technology CRISPR is being used to treat cancer, Elizabeth Tracey
reports

CRISPR is an acronym for technology that enables genetic
material to be edited, and it’s been in the news for modifying embryos to
delete potentially harmful genes. Now researchers have revealed its use to try
to treat cancer. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns
Hopkins, describes the study.

Nelson: The CRISPR-Cas9 system has been commandeered by a
variety of people to build a set of tools to enable what we call gene editing.
What they did here was they removed T cells from the body and they’re trying to
gin up a response of the immune system to go attack cancers. They have treated
three people so far this way and what they’re reporting is that they were
successfully able to construct the T cells. I suspect that in cancer medicine
you’ll see many more uses of this CRISPR-Cas9 type of technology.  :31

Nelson is optimistic about the approach and awaits the
results. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.