It will change what it means to be a human in ways we’re only starting to grasp. That’s why I (Chris) want to make sure it’s front and center on your radar…
The technology I’m talking about is gene editing.
Longtime readers know it’s one of the tech mega trends on our radar here at Legacy Research.
Our go-to tech expert, Jeff Brown, has been pounding the table on its revolutionary nature since 2015.
The best-performing stock in the model portfolio at Exponential Tech Investor – our premium tier tech investing advisory – is a gene-editing company.
It’s up 250% since Jeff first recommended it in October 2016. That compares with a 56% gain for the tech-focused Nasdaq index over the same period.
And as impressive as that is, he believes these gains are just getting started in this new field of medicine.
It gives us god-like powers over our bodies. As we’ve written before, that includes the potential to cure the roughly 6,000 crippling genetic disorders.
The first human gene-editing trial started this year. It will target genetic disorders that affect the blood. Another human trial is set to start later this year. It will target the inherited DNA mutation that causes the most common form of inherited childhood blindness.
And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved a gene therapy from health care giant Novartis. It targets the inherited mutation that causes spinal muscular atrophy in infants.
Genetic disorders are written into the DNA code found in our cells. They’re passed down from our parents.
But here’s the thing… They’re rare compared to other diseases.
One of the most common is sickle cell anemia. It causes your red blood cells to change shape. This leads to crippling fatigue and pain.
But even though it’s one of the most common genetic disorders, it affects fewer than 1 in every 100,000 Americans.
Compare that to a disease such as cancer. It affects 442 in every 100,000 Americans.
Recent developments show it can be used to treat not just rare genetic disorders… but also diseases that affect large swaths of the population.
It’s all down to the CRISPR gene-editing tool we’ve been telling you about.
In short, CRISPR works as a kind of molecular scissors. It allows scientists to cut flawed parts of our DNA and then replace them with versions that are mutation-free.
This could be the key to eradicating many of the common diseases we think of as “incurable” today.
For instance, scientists just used CRISPR to cure HIV in mice.
HIV is not caused by an inherited genetic mutation like some of the disorders scientists are using CRISPR to cure.
Instead, it’s a special type of virus called a retrovirus. It embeds itself within DNA as a means to replicate.
That’s where the CRISPR “scissors” come in handy. They can remove that corrupted DNA and replace it with the healthy kind. Here’s Jeff…
HIV is such a complex virus that most advanced drugs have only been able to suppress it… not cure it. Well, CRISPR just did the seemingly impossible. It eradicated HIV entirely in infected mice.
We’re still a long way from curing HIV in humans. But it’s a great start. And it underscores how powerful this technology is. Ultimately, it will eliminate all human disease that comes from genetic mutations. And we are still in the early stages.
I caught up with Jeff this morning about what he sees coming down the tracks outside of rare genetic disorders. Jeff…
We’ve known for years… and sometimes decades… about the exact mutation that causes these genetic disorders. We know exactly where the mutation is. We know how to find it. And we know how to fix it.
But curing cancer is more complex than that. It’s not directly caused by one specific inherited mutation. It happens when our DNA mutates as we age. If we can identify those mutations that lead to cancer, we can use CRISPR to restore our DNA back to its original, mutation-free state.
And as Jeff has been telling his readers, he’s not the only one looking to CRISPR to end all disease. Jeff again…
In March, I attended a gene-editing forum in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was standing-room only. Hundreds of people – including scientists, doctors, lawyers, ethicists, investors, and students – gathered to participate in several gene-editing panels led by luminaries from the most powerful companies in the industry.
The talks centered around the state of CRISPR – where it is… and where it is going. And I walked away more confident than ever that gene-editing technology is the biggest breakthrough in medical technology since antibiotics.
The folks there were cautious and conservative, as most scientists are. But one of the panel speakers let it slip when pressed: “The technology works. It just works.”
That’s why Jeff expects we will see an avalanche of investment dollars flow into the best gene-editing stocks before 2019 is out.
But because most of them are small startups, most investors don’t have access to them.
That’s why Jeff has spent the last five years working on a system that makes investing in early-stage companies available to all investors… not just high-net-worth individuals.
He’s hosting a free investor seminar with the details tomorrow, July 24, at 8 p.m. ET.
I’ll be tuning in. And if you’re interested in the gains on offer in these early-stage tech companies, you’ll want to join me.
Save your spot with one-click registration right here.
Regards,
Chris Lowe
July 23, 2019
Lisbon, Portugal