Crispr Pioneer Launches Startup to Make Tailored Gene-Editing Treatments

Last February, a sick infant named KJ received a gene-editing treatment made just for him. Created in just six months, it was meant to correct a rare genetic mutation that was causing toxic ammonia to build up in his small body. The treatment likely saved his life, and baby KJ was discharged from the hospital in June.

Now, a new startup called Aurora Therapeutics, cofounded by gene-editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna, is aiming to scale such treatments to many more patients with rare diseases. Doudna is one of the inventors of the gene-editing system known as Crispr, and won a Nobel Prize in 2020 for her work on the technology.

Aurora plans

→ Continue reading at Wired - Science

More from author

Related posts

Advertisment

Latest posts

An all-female wasp is rapidly spreading across North America’s elms

She’s less than a centimeter long, produces only daughters and is conquering the continent without a single male. Meet the elm zigzag sawfly, named...

A newly spotted asteroid spins faster than any of its size ever seen

PHOENIX — A newly discovered asteroid spins about as fast as a Ferris wheel. With a rotation period of just 112 seconds, it’s the...

A double cosmic explosion could be the first known ‘superkilonova’

Astronomers have spotted a distant star that seems to have exploded twice. The blast may be the first-ever known “superkilonova” — a chimera of...