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About Anna Meldolesi

science writer

CRISPR & cancer – small steps forward

Advanced cancer therapies would need new metaphors. War and space efforts – do you remember the War on Cancer and the Cancer Moonshot? – do not seem to reflect the spirit with which so many researchers pursue the strategy of small steps forward rather than chasing an illusory ultimate victory. The game of chess is perhaps a more fitting analogy, although checkmate is a long way off. The idea of genetically enhancing a patient’s immune defenses, in particular, has opened up exciting new possibilities especially for blood cancers (Car-T therapies) but is not without its limitations. One possible variant to increase the chances of success has been devised by Pietro Genovese’s group at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and described in Nature a few months ago. If you can read Italian, please see also the December 2023 issue of Le Scienze, with my interview to Gabriele Casirati, first author of the Nature’s paper.

A letter to Europe from CRISPR inventors and a thousand other scientists

Dear Members of the European Parliament, 

In these times of climate crisis, biodiversity loss and renewed food insecurity, a scientific and evidence-based approach is essential in every respect. Now more than ever, we must rise above ideology and dogmatism. That is why we the undersigned turn to you and urge you to carefully consider the benefits of embracing New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) in your upcoming parliamentary decisions. As concerned citizens who believe in the power of science to improve our lives and our relationship with the planet, we implore you to vote in favour of NGTs, aligning your decisions with the advancements in scientific understanding. Conventional breeding for climate resilient crops (with cross-breeding of certain traits, subsequent selection and then backcrossing to remove undesirable traits) is too time-consuming. It takes years, decades even. We do not have this time in an era of climate emergency.  

[Here you can read the full text of the letter and subscribe to it]

Make People Better – an imperfect job

The tale of the experiment behind the birth of the first gene-edited humans has historical significance but continues to resemble an incomplete puzzle. I had hoped to find a few more hints and answers about the He Jiankui affair in the 2022 docufilm “Make people better” directed by Cody Sheehy, but now that I finally got to see it I must confess to a bit of disappointment. The impression is of being faced with a bricolage job executed with several valuable elements (never-before-seen footage and audio recordings) and too many random materials. It must be said that the task was difficult, for at least two reasons.

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Organic farming & CRISPR – the not so odd couple

The New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) such as CRISPR are slowly rearranging the ranks in the debate on plant genetics and GM food. A few stakeholders that have always been hostile to GMOs have decided to open the door to the new opportunities coming from gene editing (in Italy, for example, the powerful farmers’ association Coldiretti has changed its mind). Others (e.g., Greenpeace, despite some isolated and courageous vanguards) have confirmed an ideological/cultural opposition, even in cases where the genetic intervention is so soft that the plants are concretely indistinguishable from those developed by conventional techniques. As for the galaxy of organic farming, it is standing still, yet something is moving. Don’t miss the article published in EUobserver by Lone Andersen and other organic farmers, who are calling on European institutions not to ban the new breeding techniques from their fields in the ongoing regulatory revision. “By encouraging the use of a limited share of the new NGTs in organic agriculture while preserving the non-GM status, the EU can further promote sustainable practices and reinforce its commitment to a greener future,” they write.

The dilemma of the first CRISPR patients: cure or fertility?

Credit Bing Image Creator

The approval of Casgevy, the new CRISPR option for sickle cell disease, is big news for American patients. The list price is high ($2.2 million) although lower than the non-CRISPR gene therapy approved by the FDA for the same pathology the same day. But in addition to economic sustainability, another issue worries scientists, clinicians, and patients: infertility.

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Salomon’s patent dilemma and the first CRISPR therapy

In the story from the Bible King Solomon ruled between two women who both claimed to be the mother of a child. In the CRISPR saga the contention is between biotech companies over foundational patents, and the next crucial episode will unveil the consequences for the first CRISPR therapy, Casgevy.

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Prime editing set to enter human trials

Credit: Microsoft/Bing

Recently David Liu announced that Prime Medicine will likely submit the first human trial application in 2024. The standard version of CRISPR uses an RNA guide to find the editing site in the genome. Prime editing, on the other hand, also uses the same RNA molecule to direct the correction, in short, to specify what to do as well as where to go.

This insight blossomed in Andrew Anzalone’s mind a few years ago during his PhD at Columbia University. The first practical demonstration came with a paper published in Nature in 2019 after joining the Liu’s Lab at the Broad Institute. Since then, this platform has been used in hundreds of experiments to fix all kinds of mutations in vitro and in animal models.

Meanwhile, the company co-founded by Anzalone and Liu has begun work on 18 treatments, the most advanced for chronic granulomatous disease. To learn more, from the eureka moment to the latest developments, we suggest listening to the Close to the Edge podcast and reading Alex Philippidis’ article in GEN.