First Use of CRISPR/Cas 9 in a Human Clinical Trial
January 10, 2017 | Terry Sharrer
Last October, clinical trial operators at the West China Hospital in Chengdu (Sichuan Province) altered immune cells from a lung cancer patient’s blood aiming to disable a protein that diminishes immune response to cancer. This was the first use of the gene editing technology, CRISPR-Cas 9, in a human patient. While the Broad Institute and University of California have a pending lawsuit over patent rights to CRISPR-Cas9, the Chinese have jumped ahead in a clinical competition that some liken to “Sputnik 2.0.” MORE