News Alert: Scientists on cusp of solving genetic diseases by snipping defective DNA

Advancements in gene editing, buoyed by the discovery of CRISPR technology that enables precise editing of the human genome, have put scientists on the cusp of solving some of mankind’s most devastating and baffling disorders. Among them is Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a muscle-withering disease that UT Southwestern geneticists have halted in animals and human cells through a single-cut gene-editing technique. The next major step: a clinical trial that could change the prognosis for the most common fatal genetic disease in children and perhaps set the stage to treat other deadly diseases.