The late James Watson’s seminal one-page Nature article on the structure of DNA simply and modestly pointed to a Future that surpassed even its authors’ expectations.
The much longer, more complex recent Nature article on quantum computing boldly predicts that its seemingly subtle accomplishments will ultimately have similar effects.
Another recent Nature article, “Personalized gene editing helped one baby: can it be rolled out widely?” presents a technology descended from the first article that is much more immediately practical than the maybe-not-as-far-off-as-we-thought but still far-off applications of quantum computing alluded to by the second article.
Not only is the title of the third article written in plain English, but the article itself is too. The sub-title is simply:
In a world first, a bespoke gene-editing therapy benefitted one child. Now reseachers plan to launch a clinical trial of the approach.
The article requires a paid subscription to access the full text, but the first few paragraphs really say it all:
Late last year, dozens of researchers spanning thousands of miles banded together in a race to save one baby boy’s life. The result was a world first: a cutting-edge gene-editing therapy fashioned for a single person, and produced in a record-breaking six months1.
Now, baby KJ Muldoon’s doctors are gearing up to do it all over again, at least five times over. And faster.
The ground-breaking clinical trial… will deploy an offshoot of the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing technique… The study is expected to begin next year…
Developing KJ’s treatment was “a pretty hectic and intense six months”, says Kiran Musunuru, a cardiologist at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and one of KJ’s doctors. “But I think we can get it shorter.”
The trial is also the next step towards answering a question that has hung over many families of children with rare diseases since the news broke of KJ’s successful treatment: when will it be our turn?…
Momentum seems to be building.
Let’s hope that momentum continues, with this and many other similar cases. And with quantum computing too.