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  • 2 days ago
We can now functionally cure sickle cell disease. Here’s how… If you have a mutation in a gene for a protein called hemoglobin, it can turn red blood cells hard and sticky, so they clump together and cause people a lot of pain. The most effective treatment until now has been to give patients other people’s cells that produce healthy hemoglobin. But it wears off. But NOW, doctors can edit the patient's OWN DNA to get them to produce hemoglobin on their own! This is incredible. If you want to know what else we’re already using DNA editing for, subscribe! #stem #science #tech #medicine #crispr

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00:00Scientists think that we're on the verge of being able to functionally cure genetic diseases
00:04like sickle cell.
00:05Here's how.
00:06So these are healthy red blood cells.
00:07But if you happen to have a mutation in a gene for a protein called hemoglobin, it can
00:11turn these cells hard and sticky.
00:14So they clump together and they cause a huge amount of pain and lack of oxygen.
00:17So the most effective treatment up until now has been to give patients other people's
00:21cells that produce healthy hemoglobin.
00:23But that wears off.
00:24But now doctors can edit a patient's own DNA to get them to produce hemoglobin on their
00:29own.
00:30They take blood cells out of the patient, edit the genes in that cell to tell it to produce
00:34a different kind of hemoglobin, and then put the edited cells back in.
00:39This is unbelievable.
00:40If you want to know what else we're using it for, subscribe.

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