Medicine
fromWIRED
2 weeks agoCrispr Offers New Hope for Treating Diabetes
Crispr-Cas12b–edited hypoimmune pancreatic islet cells produced insulin for months in a man with type 1 diabetes without immunosuppressive drugs.
In a medical first, researchers report that they have implanted CRISPR-edited pancreas cells into a person with type 1 diabetes. The cells pumped out sugar-regulating insulin for months - without the need for the recipient to take immune-dampening drugs, thanks to gene edits that allowed the cells, collected from a deceased donor, to evade detection by the recipient's immune system.