CRISPR Tracker updates: Wild new applications, from phage therapy to herpes

Q4 2025 UPDATES

New frontiers in phage therapy, pig organ transplants, and brain treatments

By Megan Molteni

As you may have noticed, this CRISPR Trackr update is overdue. That's thanks to the Trump administration's assault on federal science agencies, which STAT has thrown the full weight of its newsroom behind over the past 10 months. During that time, the gene editing field has continued to tread into new territory, with exciting advances coming both from industry and academia.

In this update you'll find some wild new applications of the technology, like the first clinical data from CRISPR-enhanced phage therapy and one experiment in which researchers used a CRISPR-based gene drive to chase herpes simplex virus 1 out of infected mice. You'll also see a surge in xenotransplantation firsts, including case reports of the first CRISPR pig lungs put into a brain-dead patient and the first CRISPR pig liver stitched into a living person — both in China.

Also out of China came the first clinical foray into using CRISPR in the brain to treat a neurodevelopment disorder. These studies and others reflect China's growing competitiveness in the gene editing space. But the U.S. appears to remain dominant for now, as the historic individualized treatment of "Baby KJ" by American academic researchers and encouraging readouts from ongoing clinical programs at companies including Verve, Beam, Prime Medicine and others in today's update make clear.

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