Latest news with #EmmanuelleCharpentier
Mint
12-05-2025
- Science
- Mint
This rice is set to make your meal climate-friendly
Earlier this month, India released the world's first genome-edited rice, a breakthrough that promises to retune its farm R&D space. The new varieties yield more using less water and are resilient to climate shocks. Mint explains why you must hold your plate and take note. Tell us more about these new varieties... These were released on 4 May by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which used genome editing (GE) to improve two rice cultivars—Samba Mahsuri and MTU1010. The project began in 2018. These advanced varieties can improve yields by up to 19% and are shorter-duration—they use less water and fertilizers. They emit less methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and overall have a lower carbon footprint. As per ICAR, the GE variants are more tolerant to drought, salinity and climate stresses. They can be grown across South, central and East India, as a sustainable choice for farmers in the era of climate crisis. Also Read | Can soil-less farming revive a Kashmiri rice variety on the verge of extinction? In what way is it designer rice? GE technology uses CRISPR-Cas, a protein that acts as molecular scissors to edit the DNA sequence of a genome. Editing a genome, which carries the genetic code of an organism, changes its character—a bit like rewriting the code of life. Using CRISPR-Cas, scientists can design or incorporate traits like increasing the number of grains on a plant. GE crops are different from genetically modified (GM) ones. In GM technology, a foreign DNA is inserted into plant genes. For example, genes from a soil bacterium were used to make Bt Cotton, the only GM crop allowed in India, to make it pest resistant. Also Read | Rice fortification can help tackle our problem of hidden hunger Can this technology be used for other crops? Yes. GE technology, it is hoped, will help India find a way out of its import dependency in pulses and oilseeds. ICAR is working on GE enhancement of these crops, for which the government has set aside ₹500 crore. Currently, India spends more than $20 billion every year to import pulses and oilseeds. By contrast, it is the world's largest exporter of rice. Also Read | Subsidies and MSP:It makes most sense for farmers to keep growing rice and wheat Are GE crops safe to consume? Scientists say GE crops pose only a marginal risk to human health and environment, and are as good as normally bred crops, which involve crossing plants. GE is more precise and a faster way to achieve results. The Coalition for GM-Free India has criticised the government's deregulation of GE techniques (compared with GM, which is tightly regulated), and alleged that the new varieties were released without any safety assessment. Experts say activists oppose gene technologies on the basis of speculative risks. Is the CRISPR tool globally accepted? Scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna received the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing CRISPR-Cas. The Nobel committee said GE can be used for cancer therapies, hereditary diseases and develop innovative crops. GE has been used to create soy oil that can be stored for longer, reducing the use of chemical preservatives. GE was also used to make high-GABA tomato, which claims to lower blood pressure and improve sleep. But repurposing food as medicine may not be to everybody's taste.
CNBC
06-05-2025
- Health
- CNBC
CRISPR-based gene editing revolutionized medicine—what's next for the firm that helped develop it?
CRISPR-Cas 9 is a gene-editing tool that made it possible to rewrite any organism's genetic code and tackle genetic diseases more effectively. Known as genetic scissors, CRISPR identifies a DNA sequence that is cut by an enzyme called Cas 9. It then changes or replaces that sequence with a different section of DNA. For this discovery, co-inventors Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. "By our interest in the lab to find new molecules that could have a role in in the bacterium streptococcus pardonus , we came across a very neat mechanism that allows to really recognize the virus that infects the bacterium in a very, very specific minor at the level of the genome of the virus. And we exploited this natural mechanism to develop the CRISPR-Cas9 technology," Emmanuelle Charpentier said in an interview with CNBC's The Edge. In 2013, Charpentier co-founded CRISPR Therapeutics to fulfil her lifelong goal of finding cures for diseases. A decade later, the company and its partner Vertex Pharmaceuticals developed CASGEVY, a therapy to treat blood disorders beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease. "With CASGEVY, we're taking the bone marrow cells from the patient, making the edit for that particular patient and we're putting it back into the patient, and it reconstitutes the hematopoietic system of the patient. We're making a drug just for you," CRISPR Therapeutics' CEO Samarth Kulkarni told The Edge. CASGEVY is a one-time therapy that costs $2.2 million per patient and can be administrated on patients 12 years of age and older. In 2023, it became the first CRISPR-based gene editing therapy to be approved by the Federal Drug Administration. CRISPR Therapeutics currently has seven clinical and ten pre-clinical programs across oncology, autoimmune cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and is investigating next generation editing modalities. Watch the video above for the full interview with Professor Charpentier from Berlin, Germany, and a tour of CRISPR Therapeutics' facilities in Boston, Massachusetts.
Euronews
31-01-2025
- Health
- Euronews
‘Much-needed hope' as CRISPR gene editing therapy recommended for sickle cell disease
Some with severe sickle cell disease in England will now be able to access landmark CRISPR gene editing therapy, according to new health guidelines which were hailed as marking a 'significant shift' in treatment for the blood disorder. The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said on Friday that it had approved the use of the gene editing therapy exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel) by England's National Health Service (NHS). NICE had previously rejected the therapy's use on the NHS to treat some people with sickle cell disease in draft guidance released in March. It approved the use of exa-cel for the rare blood disorder beta thalassemia later in the year. The therapy, which the UK's medicines regulator cleared for use in November 2023, has a list price of £1.6 million (€1.9 million) per course. Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited blood disorders that affects the shape of red blood cells. People with the condition can experience severe pain, infections, anaemia, and other problems, according to the NHS. The disease is more common in people from African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, or South Asian family backgrounds. There are currently few treatments for symptoms of the disease and the treatments that exist have 'intolerable side effects,' NICE said. The gene editing therapy will be available to some people aged 12 and older with severe complications from the condition and where a stem cell transplant is 'suitable' but a donor cannot be found, according to the watchdog. 'Much-needed hope' "The approval of exa-cel today marks a significant shift in the treatment landscape of sickle cell disease in the UK,' Funmi Dasaolu, who has sickle cell disease and spoke to the NICE committee, said in a statement. 'It is the beginning of re-addressing the inequalities in care experienced by so many with the condition,' she said, adding that it provides 'much-needed hope'. The discovery of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool won two researchers, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. Exa-cel, also called Casgevy, involves taking a person's blood stem cells, using CRISPR to edit them in a lab, and replacing them in the patient. 'The approval of Exa-cel for NHS use in England is a very exciting moment, not only because this marks the first approval of a CRISPR-based gene therapy for SCD [sickle cell disease] in the NHS, but also because it offers a potentially curative treatment for eligible patients,' said Felicity Gavins, a professor of pharmacology at Brunel University of London. 'However, while Exa-cel is a breakthrough, it is not a cure for all SCD patients, and uncertainties remain about its long-term effectiveness, safety, and accessibility,' Gavins said in a statement. 'It is critical to continue funding research to develop treatment that benefit the broader SCD population and address remaining challenges in care'.
