Researchers have corrected the DNA mistakes that cause Duchenne muscular dystrophy by snipping out only the damaged region of the mutated gene, leaving the rest intact. In the case of hemophilia A, researchers have harnessed CRISPR to precisely rearrange over half a million letters of DNA that are inverted in the genomes of affected patients. CRISPR might even be used to treat HIV/AIDS, either by cutting the virus’s DNA out of a patient’s infected cells or by editing the patient’s DNA so that the cells avoid infection altogether.
