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In the Blood

Lasker Award winner David Weatherall became interested in genetic blood diseases while doing his compulsory military service in Singapore where he treated a Nepalese girl with anemia — she had thalessemia, which had been throught to only affect people of Mediterranean heritage. As he tells the New York Times' Claudia Dreifus, following his military service, Weatherall was "hooked" and went to Johns Hopkins. There, he and his colleagues discovered that there are two types of the disease that differ in whether the defect is in the alpha or the beta chain. He says that with his Lakser winnings, he'll continue his research. "I want to look into a form of Asian thalassemia where there's a strong hint that a high proportion of the kids might be able to go through their lives with low hemoglobin and without transfusions," he says. "We don't know if this is genetic or perhaps something about their environment. That's what I'd like to sort out before I depart. And that's what the prize will probably finance."

The Scan

Positive Framing of Genetic Studies Can Spark Mistrust Among Underrepresented Groups

Researchers in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances report that how researchers describe genomic studies may alienate potential participants.

Small Study of Gene Editing to Treat Sickle Cell Disease

In a Novartis-sponsored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a CRISPR-Cas9-based treatment targeting promoters of genes encoding fetal hemoglobin could reduce disease symptoms.

Gut Microbiome Changes Appear in Infants Before They Develop Eczema, Study Finds

Researchers report in mSystems that infants experienced an enrichment in Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Finegoldia and a depletion of Bacteroides before developing eczema.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment Specificity Enhanced With Stem Cell Editing

A study in Nature suggests epitope editing in donor stem cells prior to bone marrow transplants can stave off toxicity when targeting acute myeloid leukemia with immunotherapy.