https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63859184
Wow. Just wow!
From the BBC:
The team at Great Ormond Street used a technology called base editing, which was invented only six years ago.
Bases are the language of life. The four types of base - adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T) - are the building blocks of our genetic code. Just as letters in the alphabet spell out words that carry meaning, the billions of bases in our DNA spell out the instruction manual for our body.
Base editing allows scientists to zoom to a precise part of the genetic code and then alter the molecular structure of just one base, converting it into another and changing the genetic instructions.
The large team of doctors and scientists used this tool to engineer a new type of T-cell that was capable of hunting down and killing Alyssa's cancerous T-cells.
They started with healthy T-cells that came from a donor and set about modifying them.
The first base edit disabled the T-cells targeting mechanism so they would not assault Alyssa's body
The second removed a chemical marking, called CD7, which is on all T-cells
The third edit was an invisibility cloak that prevented the cells being killed by a chemotherapy drug
The final stage of genetic modification instructed the T-cells to go hunting for anything with the CD7 marking on it so that it would destroy every T-cell in her body - including the cancerous ones. That's why this marking has to be removed from the therapy - otherwise it would just destroy itself.
@shavixmir
I wonder if they can figure a way to make people smarter, maybe more peaceful. like a virus carried on passenger jets to get it around the world so EVERYONE gets smarter and more peaceful.
@sonhouse saidNa. Some things just have to be exterminated.
@shavixmir
I wonder if they can figure a way to make people smarter, maybe more peaceful. like a virus carried on passenger jets to get it around the world so EVERYONE gets smarter and more peaceful.
