Daily briefing: Custom-made gene-editing therapy for children to enter clinical trial

"After a cutting-edge, personalized gene-editing therapy saved baby KJ Muldoon's life late last year, the researchers behind the feat are gearing up to do it again, at least five times over. Their clinical trial, expected to begin next year, will deploy an offshoot of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique called base editing, which allows scientists to make precise, single-letter changes to DNA sequences."

"Scientists have discovered a powerful antibiotic while studying the process through which a soil bacterium naturally produces a well-known drug. The compound - called premethylenomycin C lactone - is more than 100 times more active against bacteria than the final product, antibiotic methylenomycin A, which was first identified in 1965. Tiny doses of the surprise discovery killed strains of bacteria known to cause hard-to-treat infections."

"An ambitious attempt by the Indian government to reduce Delhi's toxic air pollution by inducing artificial rain has failed to trigger any precipitation. In the experiment last week, aircraft flew over the city and released particles of silver iodide and sodium chloride into the atmosphere to help water vapour to condense. Researchers say that the atmospheric conditions weren't suitable for the experiment to succeed."

A personalized CRISPR base-editing therapy rescued an infant and will be tested in at least five more children in a clinical trial expected next year. Base editing enables precise, single-letter changes to DNA and the bespoke treatment for the infant was produced in a record six months. Scientists identified premethylenomycin C lactone, a compound over 100 times more active than methylenomycin A, that killed hard-to-treat bacterial strains at tiny doses. An Indian cloud-seeding effort using silver iodide and sodium chloride failed to produce rain because atmospheric conditions were unsuitable. New biographies provide a nuanced portrait of Francis Crick. Dendrochronological study of tree rings from ancient coffins offers climatic signals for dating and environmental reconstruction.

Read at Nature