A California “human biohacking” bill calls for warnings on do-it-yourself genetic-engineering kits. Source Technology Review It’s going to be illegal in California to sell “gene-therapy kits” unless they carry a warning that says not to use them on yourself. Just one wrinkle: we’re not sure any such kit exists. Not yet, anyway. The consumer protection
Neurologic scores stabilized, seizures diminished with tailored antisense oligonucleotide therapy The researchers who developed a personalized antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) for a little girl with a form of Batten disease — all in record time — have detailed their case in the New England Journal of Medicine. Timothy Yu, MD, PhD, of Boston Children’s Hospital, and colleagues explained how
Subretinal administration of the gene therapy AAV2/5-OPTIRPE65 showed improvements in vision-guided mobility, retinal sensitivity, and foveal-driven visual function for patients with RPE65-associated retinal dystrophy, according to findings from a phase 1/2 study presented at the 2019 American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting. In the early-stage study, there was a significant change in the ability to complete a
The number of cell and gene therapy clinical trials in the UK continues to increase with 85 ongoing trials at present, representing a 37% increase over last year. For the first time the majority of trials have commercial sponsors, many of whom are non-UK companies. There has also been an increase in the proportion of
Source http://www.liebertpub.com/ The CRISPR Journal announces the publication of its October 2019 Special Issue on The Ethics of Human Genome Editing. The Journal is led by Editor-in-Chief Rodolphe Barrangou, PhD (North Carolina State University) and Executive Editor Dr. Kevin Davies. For full-text copies of articles or to arrange interviews with Dr. Barrangou, Dr. Davies, authors, or
Source MedCity News Interim Phase I/II data for Zolgensma showed improvements in children aged 2 to less than 5 with spinal muscular atrophy. The therapy received FDA approval in May for infants younger than 2. A gene therapy approved for treating spinal muscular atrophy in infants has also shown improved efficacy in older children. Basel,
Penn study shows delivering a “distant cousin” of a key protein prevented muscle damage without triggering an immune response in large animal models A gene therapy being developed at Penn Medicine to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) successfully and safely stopped the severe muscle deterioration associated with the rare, genetic disease in both small and large animal
Of an estimated 6,500 to 7,000 known rare diseases, only a fraction – maybe 5% – have U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments. To increase that percentage, the National Institutes of Health has awarded approximately $31 million in grants in fiscal year 2019 to 20 teams – including five new groups — of scientists, clinicians,
Source Technologynetworks Since the gene-editing potential of CRISPR systems was realized in 2013, they have been utilized in laboratories across the world for a wide variety of applications. When this gene-editing power is harnessed with the proliferative potential of stem cells, scientists level up their understanding of cell biology, human genetics and the future potential
After receiving an adenoviral vector treatment of human ASM enzyme, transgenic mice with Niemann-Pick disease showed less accumulation of sphingomyelin, less damage to the brain and liver, and performed better in tests of motor function and memory. A new route for delivering gene therapy into the brain so that it is widely taken up without
