CRISPR Gene-Editing Technology and Immunotherapy

CRISPR Gene-Editing Technology and Immunotherapy — The Next Revolution in Cancer Treatment?

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) advisory panel gave its approval to allow the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR—Clustered Regularly-Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats- to be used in humans for the first time ever in a study developed to target three different cancer types.

The proposed trial will focus on treating cancer with a combination of gene editing and immunotherapy by using CRISPR technology to modify a patient’s own T cells in an effort to make them more successful in attacking cancer cells. This study, which will assess the safety of this cutting-edge technology, will involve over a dozen patients located at three medical centers—the University of Pennsylvania, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the University of California at San Francisco.

Funding for this study is being provided by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy—a collaborative effort of the world’s top cancer centers along with research scientists, clinicians, and industry leaders who are committed to working together “to lead a smart, coordinated cancer immunotherapy research effort to take discoveries from bench to clinical trials to bedside faster.” Tech entrepreneur and billionaire Sean Parker founded the Parker Institute in April 2016 with an initial $250 million grant—the largest single donation to date dedicated to immunotherapy. Parker refers to this venture into cancer immunotherapy research as a “Manhattan project for curing cancer with the immune system.”

“CRISPR technology provides an opportunity to profoundly manipulate cells,” according to a statement provided by Jenifer Haslip, a spokesperson for the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. “We’re excited to be part of the first clinical effort in the United States to combine these two powerful therapeutic approaches to treat a devastating disease like cancer."