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Can Gene-Edited Mice in Nantucket Kill Lyme Disease?
Biotech researchers at MIT want to battle Lyme using CRISPR. What could go wrong?
This story is part of “Tickpocalypse,” a multi-part special report.
The island of Nantucket, the popular summer destination off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is home to about 11,000 people year-round — and millions of ticks.
When infected with a strain of bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi, those ticks can transmit Lyme disease to humans. And Lyme, which can cause everything from fever and headaches to muscle pain and arthritis, symptoms that can linger for years if the disease isn’t treated in time, is on the rise. About 300,000 people are estimated to contract the disease every year in the United States, and that number is expected to skyrocket, driven by a dramatic increase in the tick population. On Nantucket and nearby Martha’s Vineyard, the incidence of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases is among the highest in the country.
“Approximately 50% of people who grew up here have had an acute Lyme episode at least once in their life,” says Roberto Santamaria, the director of the island’s health department.
To stop the spread of the disease, Kevin Esvelt, an evolutionary biologist at MIT, is proposing an…
