Medical Minute: New Gene Editor

In this week’s Medical Minute, Dr. Joseph Hobbs, Chair Emeritus of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, discusses the newest gene editing technology, called “prime editing,” that scientists say may be as effective as CRISPR at editing DNA, with less collateral damage.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The gene-editing tool “CRISPR” made news nearly a decade ago as an innovative way to more quickly create precise models of disease for study, or even repair a mutated gene causing a disease like sickle cell anemia. The newest gene editing technology is called “prime editing” and scientists have some of the first evidence that it may be as effective as CRISPR at editing DNA, with less collateral damage. CRISPR cuts both strands of our double-stranded DNA, which can be lethal to cells, while prime editing makes a single-strand cut that appears as effective as CRISPR at silencing a target gene. And, unlike CRISPR, prime editing doesn’t appear to make unintended edits, which can sometimes cause different health problems.

The Medical Minute airs at 8:18 a.m., 1:20 p.m. and 5:18 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday on the 17 GPB radio stations across Georgia. For more Medical Minute episodes, visit the Medical Minute 2020 SoundCloud page.