Hong Kong start-up GenEditBio is testing a one-shot gene-editing therapy for TGFBI-related corneal dystrophies, inherited conditions that can progressively damage sight.In the third of a four-part Health Matters wellness series on frontier medicine in Hong Kong, Fiona Sun examines how a local start-up is testing a gene-editing therapy that could tackle a group of inherited eye diseases at their genetic source and what it will take to turn it into a treatment patients can access. For 15 years, Professor Zheng Zongli has worked to make gene-editing therapies safe enough to treat diseases with limited treatment options. His path has taken him from a PhD in medical epidemiology at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet to postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School – and, ultimately, to Hong Kong, where he co-founded the gene therapy start-up GenEditBio. What is your take on gene-editing injection?
