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Cancer cure, Strep A research and hopes for biodiversity

Editing DNA seems to have cured a teenager’s leukaemia

Base editing is a technique for substituting the building blocks of DNA. It has only been around for a few years, so its use to apparently cure cancer was all the more remarkable, as BBC Health Correspondent James Gallagher tells us.

We take a trip down the river Wye with ecologist Steve Ormerod who tells us why the river is a microcosm for some of the global issues being discussed at the UN Biodiversity summit in Montreal. BBC Environment Correspondent Victoria Gill gives us the latest on the state of negotiations there.

And the current surge in infections associated with the streptococcus bacteria has led to deaths in a few cases. It is usually a seasonal infection, worse in the spring. We ask microbiologist Dr Claire Turner from Sheffield University why we seem to be seeing a surge of infections now and her research on strep vaccine targets.

BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.

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28 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Thu 15 Dec 202216:30
  • Thu 15 Dec 202221:00

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