Press Release: ASGCT Announces Plan to Educate the Public on Gene Editing in a Newly Released White Paper
Published on November 22, 2016 – PRWeb
On Nov. 21, 2016, the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) released Therapeutic Gene Editing: an ASGCT White Paper, intended to provide policy-makers, patient advocates, and the interested public with the necessary background information in anticipation of an upcoming consensus report on human gene editing from the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine (NAS), expected to be released in early 2017.
Researchers, physicians, and patients believe gene editing can greatly improve the outlook for currently incurable genetic diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, and hemophilia, among many others. Genetic diseases are caused by mutations in genes and currently impact more than 30 million Americans, 2/3 of whom are children. Gene editing seeks to correct or change genes only in cells in which the alteration is expected to have a therapeutic benefit
to patients.