gene editing

In 2008, a fruit fly known as the spotted-wing drosophila made its way from Southeast Asia to the continental US, likely hitching a ride on fruit shipments. First detected in California…

A gene-editing startup wants to help you eat healthier salads. This month, North Carolina–based Pairwise Plants is rolling out a new type of mustard greens engineered to be less bitter than…

Evie Junior’s life has been defined by pain. He was born with sickle cell disease, which causes red blood cells to be sticky and C-shaped, not smooth and round. These cells are supposed to…

Starting in the 1960s, doctors attempted transplants of kidneys, hearts, and livers from baboons and chimpanzees—humans’ closest genetic relatives—into people. But the organs failed within…

In April 2016, Waseem Qasim, a professor of cell and gene therapy, was captivated by a new scientific paper that described a revolutionary way to manipulate DNA: base editing. The paper,…

Some scientists and ethicists think He deserves a chance to prove that he’s capable of producing scientifically valid and ethically sound work. “His case is publicly known enough that the…

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is not just a nuisance—it’s a known carrier of dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. Distinguished by the black and white stripes on its legs, the…

Dornbusch thinks this strategy will spare patients from serious side effects or “off-target” edits—unintentional cuts elsewhere in the genome that could cause problems such as cancer.The…

The Crispr components can’t naturally get into cells on their own, so Intellia uses a delivery system called lipid nanoparticles—essentially tiny fat bubbles—to ferry them to the liver. In…

There are some big caveats, however. Firstly, even if the European Commission does get its way, new regulations will apply only to gene-edited crops and not the kind of GMOs widely grown in…