Could gene editing help prevent Down syndrome? INSIGHTS into CRISPR’s potential

IMAGINE a world where the very building blocks of our DNA could be gently edited, removing what brings suffering, without erasing what makes us uniquely human.

- VUYILE MADWANTSI

That's exactly the kind of future scientists are now daring to explore, thanks to a new breakthrough in gene editing that has the medical community buzzing with hope and raising some tough questions.

Editing out the extra chromosome

Recently, researchers at Mie University in Japan accomplished something that, until now, was only the stuff of science fiction: they used a tool called CRISPR-Cas9 to remove the extra copy of chromosome 21 from cells affected by Down syndrome.

Their findings, published in the journal PNAS Nexus, could mark the start of a new era in how we think about treating (and maybe even preventing) this common genetic condition.

“We designed our CRISPR system to target the extra chromosome without affecting the normal pair,” explained Dr Ryotaro Hashizume, the project's lead scientist. “Our goal was to remove the surplus material and see whether the cell’s gene expression returned to typical levels.”

What is Down syndrome?

We've all heard of Down syndrome, but what actually causes it? In simple terms, it happens when a person is born with three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the usual two.