ISSN 1662-4009 (online)

ey0015.14-10 | CRISPR-Cas9 gene therapy | ESPEYB15

14.10 Correction of a pathogenic gene mutation in human embryos

H Ma , N Marti-Gutierrez , SW Park , J Wu , Y Lee , K Suzuki , A Koski , D Ji , T Hayama , R Ahmed , H Darby , C Van Dyken , Y Li , E Kang , AR Park , D Kim , ST Kim , J Gong , Y Gu , X Xu , D Battaglia , SA Krieg , DM Lee , DH Wu , DP Wolf , SB Heitner , JCI Belmonte , P Amato , JS Kim , S Kaul , S Mitalipov

To read the full abstract: Nature 2017;548:413-419Over recent years, the Yearbook has followed the rapid advances in CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology, initially as a widely adopted research tool, but also as an emerging form of gene therapy. Here, Ma et al. report the first use of CRISPR–Cas9 to efficiently and safely correct a pathogenic heterozygous mutation in human embryos. The...

ey0020.9-6 | Advances in Understanding Central Weight Regulation and Behaviour | ESPEYB20

9.6. Human loss-of-function variants in the serotonin 2C receptor associated with obesity and maladaptive behavior

Y He , B Brouwers , H Liu , K Lawler , EM de Oliveira , DK Lee , Y Yang , AR Cox , JM Keogh , E Henning , R Bounds , A Perdikari , V Ayinampudi , C Wang , M Yu , L Tu , N Zhang , N Yin , J Han , NA Scarcelli , Z Yan , KM Conde , C Potts , JC Bean , M Wang , SM Hartig , L Liao , J Xu , I Barroso , J Mokrosinski , Y Xu , IS Farooqi

Brief summary: This collaborative study identified 13 monoallelic rare loss-of-function (LoF) variants in the serotonin 2C receptor (HTR2C) gene in 19 unrelated individuals with hyperphagia, severe early-onset obesity, and some degree of maladaptive behaviour. The authors used exome sequencing in 2548 individuals with severe obesity and 1117 control individuals without obesity. They found that HTR2C variants cause monogenic obesity by demonstrating t...