Base Editing Cures T-cell Leukemia

Recently base editing technology allowed researchers to add several novel modifications to T-cells from a healthy donor. The base edits altered several key markers that identify the immune cells as T-cells. This meant the edited cells were essentially invisible to other T-cells (and themselves, so they wouldn’t kill each other).

Other base edits to the T-cells removed markers that were unique to the donor, turning the cells into a “universal” treatment. Now this treatment can become an off-the-shelf drug given to many patients, in contrast to the slow and expensive personalized nature of current T-cell therapies.

These are enormous changes. The first patient to receive this treatment is completely cured instead of being dead, which was the next stage of her leukemia.

Homework: The Nature article describing the technique. There’s no paper with just this story.