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A CRISPR trick in blind mice points the way to possible treatments for inherited diseases

Using CRISPR, scientists have edited the bad copy of a gene while sparing its healthy version, an advance that might help people with a common form of blindness and other…
Rod photoreceptors (in green) in a human retina.

It might seem that scientists have never met a chunk of DNA they couldn’t edit in mice or isolated cells using CRISPR from mutations causing deafness to those for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In fact, they are learning what every pencil- or Word-wielding editor knows: It’s much easier to improve something that’s in terrible shape than writing that’s near perfect.

In genome-editing, the challenge for CRISPR-wielding scientists is to edit only one of the two copies, or alleles, of every gene that people have, repairing the ever-so-slightly broken one and leaving

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