DIGITAL HEALTH CRISPR heralds hope for fighting HIV and sickle cell disease. In a breakthrough with potentially major ramifications, scientists from the University of California, San Francisco and the Gladstone Institutes have used CRISPR gene-editing technology to identify specific genes that could be targeted to combat HIV infection. The process involved modifying the genomes of hundreds of thousands of healthy immune T cells and then exposing them to HIV to see which edited genes led to protection against HIV (they identified a half dozen). Still, challenges remain considering previous studies have shown HIV recurrence in genome-edited cells, and creating drugs that mimic the researchers’ meticulous process is no easy feat. Separately, National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Dr. Francis Collins heralded CRISPR’s potential lead to an "ultimate cure" for sickle cell disease in a blog post. ( STAT News , NIH ) Technology is good for your healthcare. Fortune editor Alan Murray hits on the myriad ways that technology can transform a juggernaut as inefficient as the American health system—and reminds readers of our upcoming Brainstorm Health conference in San Diego next week. Speakers and panelists at the inaugural event will include GSK CEO Andrew Witty, Fitbit CEO James Park, AthenaHealth CEO Jonathan Bush, IBM’s Deborah DiSanzo, Dr. David Agus, Deepak Chopra, Arianna Huffington, and blockchain startup Gem CEO Micah Winkelspecht. And you can bet that we’ll be covering all the action in Brainstorm Health Daily . ( Fortune ) Can blockchain make medical claims tracking less of a nightmare? Capital One announced Monday that it’s teaming up with a compendium of tech partners, including the blockchain startup Gem, to tackle one of the most convoluted aspects of American healthcare: medical claims tracking and analytics. The banking giant hopes that the digital ledger technology can help whip a notoriously […]
