Scientists have successfully tweaked the DNA of mice with a specific genetic mutation to prevent them from going completely deaf. If the gene-editing technique is proven safe, it could one day be used to treat the same type of hearing loss in people.
Researchers injected the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 inside the ears of live mice with a deafness-causing genetic mutation. The molecular scissors were able to precisely cut the disease-causing copy of the gene without disrupting the healthy copy, according to a study published today in Nature. Even though the researchers think they were able to repair only a small fraction of cells in the ear, that prevented treated mice from losing all their hearing.
