LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — It’s Tech Tuesday and we’re talking about a treatment that may be a new cure for sickle cell disease, plus new high-tech restrooms are coming to Michigan.
By December, the FDA is expected to decide if a new treatment for sickle cell should get approved. Right now, the only cure for the painful sickle cell disease is a bone marrow transplant.
But this could soon change, thanks to new developments with the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR. This system is able to cut a gene at a specific spot, allowing scientists to operate on flaws that are the root cause of many diseases like sickle cell.
This blood disorder mostly affects Black people, and it’s a genetic mutation that causes the cells to become crescent-shaped, which can block blood flow and cause excruciating pain, organ damage, stroke and other problems.
No donor would be needed for this new treatment, which permanently changes DNA in a patient’s blood cells.
Over in Ann Arbor, new high tech public restrooms are headed to the downtown area. A report by MLive says Ann Arbor City Council voted unanimously on Monday night to a one-year contract with Throne Labs for 10 toilets at a not-to-exceed cost of $500,000.
There restrooms are touch-free, portable, and free-to-use with a mobile app. They could be installed as early as summer.
