As gene-editing moves mainstream, a pioneer in the field is testing whether it could prevent Alzheimer's
By Allison DeAngelis,
Insider
| 11. 22. 2021
Photo from Beam Therapeutics
David Liu is best known as one of the pioneers of the experimental science of editing people's genes.
Liu's laboratory at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was the birthplace of two new types of gene-editing called base and prime editing, that swap out segments of the DNA strand without cutting into it. He and other experts estimate could be more precise and have less unintended effects than other forms of gene-editing like CRISPR.
What's less known is that for the last five years, his laboratory has been quietly testing a method of potentially protecting people against one of the most devastating health conditions worldwide: Alzheimer's disease.
One of the lab's first tests of this science is to see if it can be used to install a gene called APOE2 that is believed to significantly reduce the risk of a person getting Alzheimer's. The work is still in the very early stages, Liu told Insider. His team has published multiple papers indicating that they can make these changes in cell samples and is currently...
Related Articles
By Fyodor Urnov, Time | 08.12.2024
After a lifetime in the field of epigenetics, and nearly 20 years after my colleagues and I coined the term “genome editing,” I will be the first to admit that describing the “epigenome”—a marvelous biological process that guides...
By Azeen Ghorayshi and Sarah Kliff, The New York Times | 08.12.2024
An emerging movement against in vitro fertilization is driving some doctors and patients in red states to move or destroy frozen embryos.
The embryo migration is most striking in Alabama, where the State Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos...
By Gemma Conroy, Nature | 06.27.2024
Image by Robina Weermeijer from Unsplash
A molecular-editing tool that’s small enough to be delivered to the brain shuts down the production of proteins that cause prion diseases, a rare but deadly group of neurodegenerative disorders.
The system — known...
By Staff, AP-NORC | 07.12.2024
Image by Dr. Jayesh Amin from Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by-SA 3.0
Most adults support protecting access to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, a type of fertility treatment where eggs are combined with sperm outside the body in a...