内容摘要：Albert Whitehead spends time with Star, his pet reindeer, in his pen with downtown Anchorage, Alaska, in the background on March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Albert Whitehead spends time with Star, his pet reindeer, in his pen with downtown Anchorage, Alaska, in the background on March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Considering his poor prognosis earlier, “any time we see even the smallest milestone that he’s meeting – like a little wave or rolling over – that’s a big moment for us,” his mother said.Still, researchers caution that it’s only been a few months. They’ll need to watch him for years.

“We’re still very much in the early stages of understanding what this medication may have done for KJ,” Ahrens-Nicklas said. “But every day, he’s showing us signs that he’s growing and thriving.”Researchers hope what they learn from KJ will help other rare disease patients.Gene therapies, which can be extremely expensive to develop, generally target more common disorders in part for simple financial reasons: more patients mean potentially more sales, which can help pay the development costs and generate more profit. The first CRISPR therapy

, for example, treats sickle cell disease, a painful blood disorder affecting millions worldwide.Musunuru said his team’s work —

— showed that creating a custom treatment doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. The cost was “not far off” from the $800,000-plus for an average liver transplant and related care, he said.

“As we get better and better at making these therapies and shorten the time frame even more, economies of scale will kick in and I would expect the costs to come down,” Musunuru said.“The risk of human infection by the avian flu virus is low and occurs mostly among handlers or professionals who have close contact with infected birds (alive or dead),” the ministry said.

Brazilian chicken exports have previously faced resistance over sanitary concerns. In 2018, the European Union temporarilyBrazil brought the case to the World Trade Organization.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean atMelissa Rivers recalled how swiftly the