With CRISPR, Scientists Engineered Nearly 4,000 Mutations of a Breast-Cancer Gene
The “tour de force” technique is supercharging the search for dangerous genetic variants.
BRCA1 is one of the best-studied cancer genes in the world. Still, on occasion, doctors will test a patient and find a BRCA1 mutation no one has ever seen before. This creates a dilemma. The newly discovered “variant of unknown significance,” or VUS, could be harmful, making a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer as high as 72 percent. Or it could be nothing to worry about at all.
“You hear these horror stories about people who have a VUS,” says, a breast-cancer
