Gene therapy could treat rare brain disorder in unborn babies

Gene therapy could treat rare brain disorder in unborn babies

Gene therapy could treat rare brain disorder in unborn babies 150 150 icnagency

By: Ian Sample Science editor | Gene therapy could treat rare brain disorder in unborn babies | Neuroscience | The Guardian

Doctors could use Crispr tool to inject benign virus into foetus’s brain to ‘switch on’ key genes

Scientists are developing a radical form of gene therapy that could cure a devastating medical disorder by mending mutations in the brains of foetuses in the womb.

The treatment, which has never been attempted before, would involve doctors injecting the feotus’s brain with a harmless virus that infects the neurons and delivers a suite of molecules that correct the genetic faults.

Related: What is gene editing and how can it be used to rewrite the code of life?

Related: Gene-edited babies: why are scientists so appalled? – Science Weekly podcast

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