And then there are in vivo delivery strategies that won’t use viruses at all. Building on advances in nanotechnology—the science of fabricating submicroscopic structures—researchers are exploring the use of lipid nanoparticles to ferry CRISPR throughout the body. Resistant to degradation and easy to manufacture, these delivery vehicles also have the benefit of releasing the Cas9 protein and its guide RNA into the patient’s body in a regimented way. Viruses (and their CRISPR cargo) can persist in cells for a long time, which—as I’ll explain—can cause problems in the editing process, but lipid
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