Ep 47: The CRISPR Cure for Sickle Cell Disease

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In this fourth installment of the CRISPR Chronicles, show hosts Fatu and Shekerah give a review of sickle cell anemia, the cause and symptoms of the disease, and discuss how the CRISPR gene therapy treatment works.

Tune in to learn more about:

• The genetic basis of Sickle Cell Disease
• What Amazon delivery vans have in common with your Red Blood Cells
• The effect of mutant hemoglobin on Red Blood Cells
• The variety and severity of symptoms that SCD patients experience
• The disease burden of SCD throughout the world
• The clever strategy used to treat the disease with CRISPR gene therapy
• The results of the CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals gene therapy clinical trials
  For more information on this topic, visit our website: welovesciencepodcast.com
  

Hear directly from Sickle Cell Disease patients who received the treatment during the clinical trial: Victoria Gray and Jimi Olaghere
Jump directly to the next episodes in the CRISPR series:

• Ep 50: Changing Lives by the Million - CRISPR Cures

Catch up on the previous CRISPR episodes:

• Ep 35: The first CRISPR Chronicles episode: How CRISPR gene therapy is bringing hope to the world
• Ep 38: A foundational discussion explaining the secret behind CRISPR gene therapy
• Ep 41: A look into the ups and downs of how the CRISPR saga developed

Reach out to Fatu:
www.linkedin.com/in/fatubm
Twitter: @thee_fatu_b
and [e-mail]

Reach out to Shekerah:
www.linkedin.com/in/shekerah-primus
and [e-mail]

Music from Pixabay: Future Artificial Intelligence Technology 130 by TimMoor
Music from https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes: Hotshot by ScottHolmesMusic

Kapitler

1. Ep 47: The CRISPR Cure for Sickle Cell Disease (00:00:00)

2. What is sickle cell disease? (00:03:31)

3. How are red blood cells like delivery trucks? (00:04:22)

4. How hemoglobin works like packaging (00:05:32)

5. How mutant hemoglobin changes red blood cells and causes sickle cell disease (00:06:44)

6. Symptoms caused by sickle cell disease (00:09:37)

7. How many people throughout the world suffer from sickle cell disease? (00:15:33)

8. How sickle cell disease was cured prior to the CRISPR gene therapy cure (00:17:29)

9. The clever strategy used to cure sickle cell disease using CRISPR gene therapy (00:18:44)

10. What do patients actually have to endure to be cured (00:21:16)

11. Feedback from patients who have been cured by this treatment (00:26:36)

12. In which countries is the treatment already approved for use? (00:29:40)