News: CRISPR Fights Diabetes and Obesity by Changing the Fate of Fat Cells

"Silvia Corvera and Michael Czech are confident. They have spent decades researching type 2 diabetes, trying to find new therapies for the metabolic disease that hits up to 10% of the population. Recently, they achieved promising results for a CRISPR-based cell therapy in mice. And clinical trials are the longer-term goal thanks to a clever use of the gene-editing technology that reduces the risk of unwanted side effects.

»We are very excited about the technology. We have shown proof of concept in mice, and this has given confidence to us and our funders to move ahead in non-human primates already this year,« says Michael Czech, Professor in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and co-senior author of the study that was published in Nature Communications.

The new therapy is based on the implantation of fat tissue that has been gene-edited to burn fat and glucose and secrete various factors that regulate metabolic health. Silvia Corvera, MD, and Endowed Chair in Diabetes Research, also at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is the study’s other co-senior author. She explains that current medications for diabetes tend to focus on controlling glucose levels. But the situation is much more complex.." Lire la suite