First-Ever CRISPR Human Gene Editing Trial to be Held This Year & Other Tech News

Its #TerrificTuesday! And we’ve brought the latest technological innovations from around the world. Let’s get started with the latest science & technology news for today.

The First-Ever CRISPR Human Gene Editing Trial to be Held This Year

At the Sichuan University West China Hospital in Chengdu, patients who did not respond to any type of treatments or techniques like chemotherapy & radiation will undergo the first-ever CRISPR procedure for gene editing. Using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique, scientists will edit the PD-1 gene to prevent the T-Cell from attacking healthy cells.

According to Nature.com, the CRISPR-Cas9 technique "pairs a molecular guide able to identify specific genetic sequences on a chromosome with an enzyme that can snip the chromosome at that spot — to knock out a gene in the cells". This, in turn, encodes a different protein, called PD-1, which check a cell’s capacity to launch an immune response to prevent it from attacking perfectly healthy cells.

"Treatment options are very limited," says Lu You, an oncologist at Sichuan University’s West China Hospital in Chengdu who leads the research, "This technique is of great promise in bringing benefits to patients, especially the cancer patients whom we treat every day."

But how will they validate the results? "It is well known that CRISPR can result in gene edits at the wrong place in the genome, with potentially harmful effects. Chengdu MedGenCell, a biotechnology company and a collaborator on the trial, will validate the cells to ensure that the correct genes are knocked out before the cells are re-introduced into the patients," remarks Lei Deng of West China Hospital, Oncologist, who is also a member of Lu’s team.

Treating Urinary Tract Infections without Antibiotics

Researchers from Duke University have stumbled upon an interesting find – a secret pathway that is used by our bladder cells to remove the harmful bacteria that cause Urinary Tract Infections.

"We identified a new mechanism that infected cells employ to clear bacteria which cause UTIs. [Additionally,] We found that the process which cells use to secrete chemicals also appears to be the way to clear urinary tract infections," says researcher Yuxuan Phoenix Miao.

"Bacterial pathogens hide within a membranous vesicle in the bladder cells. We revealed that a protein complex important for secreting hormones called ‘Exocyst’ can precisely recognize and locate bacteria hiding in those vesicles, then promote transport of these bacteria-laden vesicles towards the cell surface, and throw the bacteria out of the bladder cell," he adds.

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