Clusters of Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), a new gene editing technique, was recently used by scientists to eliminate facial muscular dystrophy. It was used to replace the problem gene and turn off the condition by sending a combination of protein and RNA to bind and overhaul a gene.

What CRISPR did to facial muscular dystrophy provides the medical community the hope of not just using gene editing to battle ailments but also to eliminate the disease. However, it has been tested only on animals and the initial test was only 50 percent effective, notes Engadget.

Successful human trial of CRISPR could result in physicians treating the root cause of a genetic disease instead of finding a cure for the symptoms.

Several applications of genome editing, such as the treatment of human diseases, would be discussed by experts from the US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Medicine and the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the International Summit on Human Gene Editing: A Global Discussion which opens on Tuesday in Washington, DC, with hundreds of scientists attending the conference.

Interest in genome editing became higher after China announced in April that it used the technique to edit the genomes of nonviable human embryos that could not develop into babies. The Royal Society of Britain is the summit’s sponsor.

The three-day event, being held at the National Academy of Sciences building, will include experts from reputable institutions such as the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Max Planck Institute of Infection Biology, Institute for Basic Science of the Seoul National University, University of California San Francisco, King’s College London, University of Pittsburg and Boston Children’s Hospital as speakers on gene editing.

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