A new study has been published in Nature journal showing that the gene editing Crispr-Cas 9 technology can cause a lot more damage to treated cells than previously thought. Scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute found that a significant number of bases in the DNA of the Crispr’ed cells were being deleted or rearranged, and this was discovered even at locations away from the specific site of the alteration.
Two other recent studies found that cells which have been edited using Crispr technology are more likely to mutate and thus, form cancers. The findings suggest that Crispr-based therapy may have unintentional detrimental impacts on the patients treated: Crispr therapeutic companies will need to take these research findings into account.
