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A century-long journey

In 2019, the first announcements were made of a patient being potentially cured of sickle cell disease. This has been heralded as a landmark moment for the use of gene-editing tools in possibly treating diseases such as sickle cell disease. Sickle cell disease is a group of disorders that affects hemoglobin, a molecule that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body. The disease distorts red blood cells into a sickle, or crescent, shape, causing limited blood flow to cells and as a result, inducing chronic pain. After over a decade of genomics research, a cure for sickle cell disease may be at hand.