Could we rewrite the story of Down syndrome?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Down syndrome occurs when someone has an extra copy of chromosome twenty-one. That can lead to developmental delays and health issues.
But Ryotaro Hashizume and team at Mie University in Japan made an exciting breakthrough. Using the gene editing tool CRISPR, they removed the extra chromosome from lab-grown cells.
Results? An over thirty percent success rate! The edited cells not only survived, but grew faster, and under less stress.
Not everyone will be open to these potential therapies, but here’s what one mother told Loh Down. She hopes it’s less like CHANGING her child’s eyes, and more like giving them glasses to see CLEARER.
Reference: Hashizume, R., Wakita, S., Sawada, H., Takebayashi, S., Kitabatake, Y., Miyagawa, Y., Hirokawa, Y. S., Imai, H., & Kurahashi, H. (2025). Trisomic rescue via allele-specific multiple chromosome cleavage using CRISPR-Cas9 in trisomy 21 cells. PNAS Nexus, 4(2), pgaf022. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf022