Gene-editing tool CRISPR may soon be used to treat humans for the first time

The controversial gene-editing tool CRISPR may soon be used to create custom blood cells that hunt cancer — its first use to treat humans. A study at the University of Pennsylvania received an initial approval from the ethical gatekeepers at the National Institutes of Health this week, the government body's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) signing off on its potential use in a human trial.

Immune cells will be edited and then inserted back into cancer patients

The designer immune cell technique has previously been tested in cancer patients. For it, doctors take a sample of patients' blood and spin out white blood cells called T cells. Previous trials have used a virus to insert a section of DNA that searches for cancerous...