MIT Technology Review reports that the first use of CRISPR in humans, to edit immune cells, has been proposed by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania. The National Institutes of Health’s Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee will meet next week to review the the use of the technology.
The NIH writes in a blog post that the technique would be used to edit two genes in human T cells, which would target myeloma, melanoma, and sarcoma tumor cells.
This comes after an earlier proposal from Editas, a biotech company that plans to use CRISPR to treat eye disorders in 2017. But the University of Pennsylvania study may take place before then.