CRISPR/Cas9 β-globin gene targeting in human haematopoietic stem cells

Matthew Porteus and colleagues develop a method to improve gene editing for correction of β-haemoglobinopathies such as sickle cell disease and β-thalassaemia. By optimizing delivery and CRISPR-based homologous recombination gene correction, scaling the genome editing protocol, and including a reporter gene to enrich for edited cell populations, the authors can increase the number of corrected long-term haematopoietic stem cells ex vivo that can retain their functionality after transplantation. Initial testing suggests that this strategy could be further developed for clinical implementation.