News reports don’t quite put this development into perspective.  It is one thing to insert a new gene in animal eggs so the next generation can benefit but quite another to do this in a fully developed adult with full-blown disease.  What this means is that single-gene mutation diseases humans were born with can possibly be cured today, not just corrected in the next generation.

Now only a small percentage of all disease, about 2%, is caused by inherited conditions due to a gene mutation. Most of these inherited diseases being what are called enzyme deficiency storage diseases emanating from a single gene mutation where normal disposed of biological material (cholesterol, cellular debris, etc.) accumulates instead of undergoing enzymatic degradation.