Rob Stein

Scientists are reporting the first evidence that genetically edited cells could be safely helping a patient with sickle cell disease. The cells are producing a crucial oxygen-carrying protein.

Researchers edited the DNA in bone marrow cells taken from a Mississippi woman with sickle cell disease to produce a treatment that could alleviate the excruciating effects of her inherited illness.

Attempts to use the gene-editing tool CRISPR to develop a treatment for cancer seem safe and feasible in the earliest findings from the first three patients. "So far, so good," scientists say.

A new technique, dubbed 'prime editing,' appears to make it even easier to make very precise changes in DNA. It's designed to overcome the limits of the CRISPR gene editing tool.

NPR was the only news organization allowed into the lab to witness the moment the releases began this year. The goal is to create a powerful new weapon in the fight against malaria.

She's the first patient with a genetic disorder to be treated with the powerful gene-editing technique CRISPR. The treatment has wrapped up, and now she's waiting to see if it brings relief.

Researchers safely used CRISPR gene-editing techniques in a patient with HIV. The research provides evidence the approach may be promising for treating HIV infection.

Researchers hope large numbers of very primitive, embryo-like structures will lead to new insights into early human development and ways to prevent miscarriages and birth defects.

NPR got exclusive access to the only lab known to be trying to edit the DNA in human sperm, which raises all the same thorny issues as modifying genes in human embryos

NPR visited the only lab in the world known to be trying to use the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR to modify the DNA in human sperm. If successful, it could be used to prevent genetic disorders.

For the first time, doctors have used the gene-editing technique CRISPR to treat a genetic disorder in the U.S. The patient, who has sickle cell disease, spoke with NPR about her treatment.

Victoria Gray, 34, of Forest, Miss., has sickle cell disease. She is the first patient ever to be publicly identified as being involved in a study testing the use of CRISPR for a genetic disease.

Researchers hope these "embryoids" could provide crucial new insights into how to treat infertility and prevent miscarriages, birth defects and many diseases. But they stir ethical concerns.

A Moscow scientist claims he has a safe way of editing genes in human embryos — a method that could protect resulting babies from being infected with HIV. Approval of the experiment seems unlikely.

A congressional committee has upheld a prohibition against the Food and Drug Administration considering using gene-edited embryos to establish pregnancies.

Analysis of DNA from more than 400,000 people in the U.K. suggests a genetic modification that protects against HIV may actually increase the overall risk of premature death.

The modified fungus produces spider toxin that rapidly kills mosquitoes, raising hopes for a new weapon to fight a disease that sickens millions. But not everyone is convinced.

The Food and Drug Administration approved a new gene therapy for a rare but devastating genetic disorder. The drugmaker says the cost is worth it because it's a one-time treatment that saves lives.

Superbugs are bacteria that can beat modern medicine's most powerful drugs. So doctors are racing to find new ways to fight back.

Treatment with genetically altered bacteriophages — viruses that attack bacteria — may have halted a patient's near-fatal infection, hinting at new ways to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria.