Genetics | Penn Today

How scientists made the first gene-editing treatment for a baby

Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas and Kiran Musunuru of the Perelman School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia explain the implications of their treatment of a child with a rare genetic disorder using personalized gene-editing.

Leafcutter ants moving around a bright green leaf.

What can ants and naked-mole rats teach about societal roles?

PIK Professor Shelley Berger and colleagues explored the genetic basis of labor distribution in communal-dwelling species and discovered that pathways dating back hundreds of millions of years are conserved across animal kingdoms. Their findings offer fundamental insights into complex social behaviors.

5 min. read

Could gene therapy restore lost hearing?

Experts at Penn Medicine are working to understand the genetic architecture of hearing loss in adults at the Penn Center for Adult-Onset Hearing Loss.

2 min. read

Parents of baby saved by new gene editing therapy open up about his health journey

A team of researchers at CHOP and the Perelman School of Medicine developed a personalized gene-editing treatment for a baby’s rare disorder, using CRISPR to alter his DNA.

Determining the cause of cryopreservation fertility failures

A new study from Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine on germ cell gene regulatory networks offers a holistic understanding of complex male germ cell differentiation in meiosis and spermatogenesis.

2 min. read

World-first CRISPR therapy could ‘transform’ treatment for rare genetic diseases, but key challenges lie ahead

Kiran Musunuru and Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas of the Perelman School of Medicine led a team from Penn and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that used gene editing to heal a baby with a rare genetic condition.

A search for new antibiotics in ancient DNA

César de la Fuente of the Perelman School of Medicine, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues are probing genetic remnants of Neanderthals and extinct animals to find new antibiotics.

My patient with a rare condition should have formed a ‘second skeleton.’ Why didn’t he?

Frederick Kaplan of the Perelman School of Medicine shares his experience treating a patient with an unusual case of FOP, a rare genetic condition that causes the growth of a “second skeleton.”

Scientists edited genes inside a living person for the first time—and saved his life

Five years of advancing innovative genetics researchers at Penn Medicine

A Penn master’s program celebrates its fifth graduating class of genetic counselors.

2 min. read

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How scientists made the first gene-editing treatment for a baby

What can ants and naked-mole rats teach about societal roles?

Could gene therapy restore lost hearing?

Parents of baby saved by new gene editing therapy open up about his health journey

Determining the cause of cryopreservation fertility failures

World-first CRISPR therapy could ‘transform’ treatment for rare genetic diseases, but key challenges lie ahead

A search for new antibiotics in ancient DNA

My patient with a rare condition should have formed a ‘second skeleton.’ Why didn’t he?

Scientists edited genes inside a living person for the first time—and saved his life

Five years of advancing innovative genetics researchers at Penn Medicine