Health ‘Harvard Thinking’: The healing power of gene therapy Illustrations by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff Samantha Laine Perfas Harvard Staff Writer September 23, 2026 long read How researchers are seeing their work changing lives — from restoring children’s hearing to saving a baby born with a fatal disease Baby KJ made national headlines last year when at 6 months old he became the first person to receive a personalized CRISPR gene-editing treatment for his previously incurable genetic disorder. David Liu, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences, says that the case — spearheaded by doctors at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia — h...