Chinese Scientists Genetically Modify Human Cells To Cure Cancer

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Nov, 2016 ) : Scientists from China have introduced a new technology of injecting genetically-edited cells in human for first time ever and marking a major breakthrough in field of genetics to cure cancer.

The trial involved modifying a patient's own immune system cells to make them more effective at combating cancer cells and then injecting them back into the patient. The scientists of Sichuan University in Chengdu used CRISPR- Cas9 technology, a new kind of gene-editing technique that offers a path to healing by using an enzyme to snip out an unwanted genetic code.

The CRISPR-Cas9 is a faster, cheaper and more accurate gene-editing tool than previously available techniques of editing DNA. It allows scientists to take out genes ready to grow a genetically inherited cancer before cancer even starts spreading.

Theoretically, they could apply the same technique by removing the genes causing the disease after it has already started spreading. As per details, scientists from around the world including the United States have been working hard to perfect this technology.

US-based biomedical firm, Editas Biotech, has already proposed plans for a CRISPR trial in 2017 while Stanford is also working towards a human trial to repair genes causing sickle cell anemia. However, China is the first one to actually successfully use this on a fully formed adult human.

Even now, the technology is far from perfect, as evident by another CRISPR experiment by a number of Chinese scientists on modifying human embryos which ended in a failure.