Taking the sting out: Australian gene editing is crossing the pain threshold

A Sydney team has developed a box jellyfish antidote so simple it can go on as a spray. But it’s only the first step The idea came to Dr Greg Neely after the fruit flies. In May, the Sydney-based scientist and his team of 22 announced they had potentially cured the sting of the box jellyfish , the most venomous creature in the world, whose toxins cause excruciating pain as a best-case scenario, and cardiac arrest as the worst. It was a simple but groundbreaking technique, using the latest in genetics technology – Crispr, the gene-editing tool that allows scientists to make precise changes to DNA. Continue reading...