Inside STAT: Can CRISPR help create new vaccines?

Vaccines have prevented hundreds of millions of deaths in the past two centuries. But they’re often risky for people with compromised immune systems, and they don’t exist for several viral diseases. That’s given some scientists an idea: improve one of the oldest scientific tools with one of the newest — CRISPR. In two recent studies and a handful more that are planned or underway, scientists are using the genome editing technology to skip a step in antibody production. They’re hoping that’ll allow them to turn the immune system against viruses that can’t currently be prevented by vaccines. STAT’s Sharon Begley has the story here.