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1257 points jbredeche | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0.713s | source
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colechristensen ◴[] No.43998409[source]
>KJ has made medical history. The baby, now 9 ½ months old, became the first patient of any age to have a custom gene-editing treatment, according to his doctors.

This is _not_ the first human to be treated with a treatment under the wide umbrella of gene therapy based on their own edited genes. There probably is a more narrow first here but the technical details get lost in journalism which is a shame.

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autoexec ◴[] No.43998437[source]
Okay, I'll bite: Who then was the first patient of any age to have a custom gene-editing treatment?
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1. jfarlow ◴[] No.43998483[source]
This is an AI-generated response, and is inaccurate.

That was one of the first cases of _germline_ gene editing using CRISPR - NOT "the first instance of gene editing." There have been quite a few other genetic editing tools that predate CRISPR, and there have been other edits using CRISPR that were not of the entire human's genome.

2. ◴[] No.43998492[source]
3. shermantanktop ◴[] No.43998493[source]
Ah yes, the "neutral" tone of AI generated content. "significant controversy and ethical concerns," sure.
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4. roywiggins ◴[] No.43998501[source]
That is not accurate, attempts at gene therapy in humans go back further than that.

https://www.whatisbiotechnology.org/index.php/science/summar...

5. sigzero ◴[] No.43998599[source]
There are always those concerns.