Curing HIV and sickle cell falls short if the most vulnerable populations are left out
By Francis S Collins,
Fortune
| 03. 08. 2020
The year was 1984. I was finishing my medical genetics training at Yale, working on the molecular genetics of disorders of human hemoglobin. I was at a job interview at the University of Michigan when one of the senior professors asked what my lifetime goal was. "To contribute to scientific advances that would lead to a cure for sickle cell disease in Africa," I said. The professor laughed and said I was a hopeless dreamer.
That same year I saw my first case of HIV/AIDS. It was heartbreaking. This young man was wasting away in front of us, his body ravaged by infections that were taking advantage of his devastated immune system. There was little we could do, and he died in just a few weeks. I promised myself if there was ever a chance to help find a cure, I would do so.
Fast forward to today. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have just embarked on a bold 10-year program to develop gene-based approaches to cure both sickle cell disease...
Related Articles
By Mariella Bodemeier Loayza Careaga, The Scientist | 03.15.2024
Scientists have genetically modified isolated microbes for decades. Now, using CRISPR, they intend to target entire microbiomes.
Humans are never alone. Even in a room devoid of other people, they are always in the company of billions of microscopic beings...
By Gerry Smith, Bloomberg | 03.12.2024
When Celenise Mahmood first learned about two new gene therapies that could cure sickle cell disease, she felt a wave of relief.
Her 9-year-old son, Navid, has the inherited blood disorder. By age 5, he’d had over 30 life-saving blood...
By Carol Cardona and Michelle Kromm, Scientific American | 03.11.2024
By Nada Hassanein, New Jersey Monitor | 03.14.2024
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last year approved two breakthrough gene therapies for sickle cell disease patients. Now a new federal program seeks to make these life-changing treatments available to patients with low incomes — and it could...