Reengineering Life
Bill Gates Is Investing Millions in a Low-Cost CRISPR Cure for Sickle Cell
Gates plans to launch trials in the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa within the next 10 years
Reengineering Life is a series from Future Human about the astonishing ways genetic technology is changing humanity and the world around us.
In sub-Saharan Africa, millions of people suffer from sickle cell disease, and an estimated 50% to 90% of children born with the ailment die before the age of five. Bill Gates says he has a plan to cure it.
The Microsoft co-founder and billionaire is investing millions of dollars into the development of low-cost gene-editing treatments that could be far more accessible than current transplant-based treatments. “We believe that over the next decade, we will be able to make this breakthrough,” Gates said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February.
Recently, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded several grants to biotech companies, academic organizations, and nonprofits to further that goal. It’s all part of an initiative announced last year, in which the Gates Foundation and the U.S. National Institutes of Health each pledged $100 million to…
