In 2023, the FDA approved the first gene therapies to help treat people with sickle cell disease. The treatment is for patients 12 years and older. But what if you could use this technology before someone is born? That’s what some researchers, and others, believe is the hope for the future. The idea is to use CRISPR, a technology used to edit the genes of living beings, during in vitro fertilization. It’s much easier said than done but could be possible, in theory. Ashley Smart is the associate director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT. He is also a senior editor at Undark and reported on embryonic gene editing for the publication. He joins us to share how these treatments and technologies might work, as well as the current challenges and limitations.
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