CRISPRing vaccine alternatives

Vaccination has given us a remarkable tool to curb the spread of human disease, but it’s far from foolproof. Immunocompromised individuals can’t be inoculated; furthermore, there are dozens of diseases that just don’t have workable vaccines. Enter CRISPR. A handful of labs are using the genome-editing tool to genetically reprogram B cells, prompting them to produce disease-fighting antibodies into perpetuity, STAT’s Sharon Begley writes.

It's early days for this work, and the method wouldn’t necessarily replace traditional vaccines — that would be economically prohibitive — because the B cells would have to be CRISPRed individually, patient by patient. But there are talks of developing “universal donor” B cells that could be implanted into just about anyone.