Timeline milestone
The first CRISPR-edited cells are infused into a patient
From From Bacterial Defence to Medicine: The CRISPR Gene-Editing Revolution
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Research
The first CRISPR-edited cells are infused into a patient
A team in Chengdu, China infused a lung cancer patient with T cells whose PD-1 gene had been disabled by CRISPR-Cas9, the first time an edited human cell product was given to a person.
At West China Hospital in Chengdu, oncologist Lu You's team extracted T cells from a patient with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, used CRISPR-Cas9 to knock out the gene for PD-1, a protein that normally restrains immune attacks, then re-infused the edited cells. It was the first time a CRISPR-edited human cell product had ever been given to a person, months ahead of comparable US trials. The Phase 1 study, eventually enrolling 22 patients, would later confirm the approach was feasible and safe, opening the door to CRISPR-based cell therapies more broadly.
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