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07/29/2016

China starts testing a controversial gene-editing technique on patients

A revolutionary new Gene-editing technique is about to be tested on patients with lung cancer. It’s a first that this technique is being used on humans. A team of the Sichuan University’s West China hospital in Chengdu, China, led by Lu You, oncologist at the university will start the tests in august this year.

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According to the scientific journal Nature, the technique is known under the name Crispr and it searches, replaces and destroyes specific parts of the DNA. The patients it’s tested on are lung cancer patients on which chemo therapie and radiaton therapie and other treatments have failed.

This Crispr technique adds a new genetic sequence, which is designed to aid in the destruction of cancer. The clinical trial received ethical approval from the hospital’s review board on the 6th of july.

Even though the technique potentially shows a lot of benefits, such as creating crops, resistant to plagues and could tackle many diseases, the method is still controversial, even though the technique is different from genetic manupilation.

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