Charité performs first approved CRISPR gene therapy on a patient

Doctors at Berlin's Charité university hospital announced on October 1, 2026 that they have treated a 19-year-old patient with a serious blood disorder using the recently approved CRISPR gene-editing therapy. The young man, who had depended on regular transfusions for years, no longer needs them after his own blood-forming stem cells were modified in the laboratory and reinfused. It is the first use of the gene scissors at Charité since the therapy received regulatory approval for routine care in Germany, and one of only a handful of such treatments nationwide. The procedure is extremely complex and costly, running into seven-figure sums per patient. Charité physicians stressed that long-term safety is still being studied: the patient must be monitored for 15 years to detect any late side effects. Doctors nevertheless describe the result as a milestone for people with hereditary blood diseases such as sickle-cell anaemia and beta-thalassemia, who could in future be cured instead of merely treated.