- PARALYSED PATIENTS WALK AGAIN
Paralysed patients lucky enough to
be enrolled in clinical trials are already
walking again thanks to rapidly
advancing neurotechnology. In 2018,
Swiss and UK scientists announced
they had placed nerve signal-boosting
implants into the spines of three men
paralysed in road and sporting accidents.
All are now able to walk a short distance.And just last year, in a truly sci-fi-
style demonstration, researchers at
the Grenoble University Hospital in
France used an exoskeleton to give a
28-year-old man back the use of his
lower limbs after falling and breaking his
neck. The man uses two 64-electrode
brain implants to control the robo-suit.STANFORD/RISD/APPLIEDDESIGN, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, EPFL/ JAMANI CALLIET
- DISEASES
EDITED OUT OFOUR DNA
The gene-editing tool
CRISPRcouldfinally
treat disease at the
genetic levelThe birth of the world’s first
gene-edited babies caused uproar in- The twin girls whose genomes
were tinkered with during IVF
procedures had their DNA altered using
the gene-editing technology CRISPR, to
protect them from HIV. CRISPR uses a
bacterial enzyme to target and cut
specific DNA sequences. Chinese
researcher, He Jiankui, who led the
work, was sent to prison for
disregarding safety guidelines and
failing to obtain informed consent. But
in ethically sound studies, CRISPR is
poised to treat life-threatening
conditions. Before the controversy,
Chinese scientists injected CRISPR-
edited immune cells into a patient to
help them fight lung cancer. By 2018,two US trials using similar techniques in
different kinds of cancer patients were
up and running, with three patients
reported to have received their edited
immune cells back. Gene-editing is also
being tested as a treatment for inherited
blood disease sickle cell anaemia, an
ongoing trial will collect and edit stem
cells from patients’ own blood.