Carl June, MD, Pioneers New Way to Edit DNA, Hope for Treating Disease

The New York Times

The personalized HIV therapy using minute, naturally occurring proteins called zinc fingers to engineer T cells to one day treat AIDS in humans -- pioneered by Carl June, MD, director of Translational Medicine at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, and a professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine -- is featured in a New York Times article on the zinc-finger technology. A clinical trial is now under way to see if T cells from HIV patients would have their CCR5 gene deliberately cut out by a zinc finger molecule. These modified T cells are then infused back into the patients to re-establish their immune system and decrease their viral load. Katherine A. High, MD, a professor of pediatrics at Penn and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, also commented in the article.