Mij
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
B.C. man cured of rare disease in world-first for new gene-editing technology
Sperle is the first person known to have received and be cured by a treatment known as “prime editing,” in a breakthrough by U.S.-based Prime Medicine reported in the peer-reviewed New England Journal of Medicine last December.
“People with this disease don’t live long and healthy lives,” Turvey says.
But the sequencing of the human genome has allowed researchers to identify “spelling” mistakes in people’s DNA, he says, and “the era we’re really in now is about translating those fundamental discoveries to helping patients.”
"The gene-editing treatment involved extracting Sperle’s own cells, fixing the “spelling mistake” and inserting the cells back into his body, where they multiplied, overriding his cells that hadn’t been working properly, Turvey says.
“What that meant was, you know, his body wasn’t going to reject those cells, those cells weren’t going to attack his body because they were his cells, just fixed up.”
Sperle is the first person known to have received and be cured by a treatment known as “prime editing,” in a breakthrough by U.S.-based Prime Medicine reported in the peer-reviewed New England Journal of Medicine last December.
“People with this disease don’t live long and healthy lives,” Turvey says.
But the sequencing of the human genome has allowed researchers to identify “spelling” mistakes in people’s DNA, he says, and “the era we’re really in now is about translating those fundamental discoveries to helping patients.”
"The gene-editing treatment involved extracting Sperle’s own cells, fixing the “spelling mistake” and inserting the cells back into his body, where they multiplied, overriding his cells that hadn’t been working properly, Turvey says.
“What that meant was, you know, his body wasn’t going to reject those cells, those cells weren’t going to attack his body because they were his cells, just fixed up.”
Last edited by a moderator:
