Flu Is Relentless. Crispr Might Be Able to Shut It Down

As he addressed an audience of virologists from China, Australia, and Singapore at October’s Pandemic Research Alliance Symposium, Wei Zhao introduced an eye-catching idea.

The gene-editing technology Crispr is best known for delivering groundbreaking new therapies for rare diseases, tweaking or knocking out rogue genes in conditions ranging from sickle cell disease to hemophilia. But Zhao and his colleagues at Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity have envisioned a new application.

They believe Crispr could be tailored to create a next-generation treatment for influenza, whether that’s the seasonal strains which plague both the northern and southern hemispheres on an annual basis or the worrisome new variants in birds and other wildlife that might trigger the next pandemic.

Crispr can edit the genetic code—the biological instruction book that makes life possible—within the cells of every living being. That means it can take different forms. The best-known version is mediated by the Cas9 enzyme; this can fix errors or mutations within genes by cutting strands of DNA. But virologists like Zhao are more interested in Cas9’s less famous cousin...