A Young Mississippi Woman's Journey Through A Pioneering Gene-Editing Experiment

"When Victoria Gray was just 3 months old, her family discovered something was terribly wrong."

"'My grandma was giving me a bath, and I was crying. So they took me to the emergency room to get me checked out,' Gray says. 'That's when they found out that I was having my first crisis.'"

"It was Gray's first sickle cell crisis. These episodes are one of the worst things about sickle cell disease, a common and often devastating genetic blood disorder. People with the condition regularly suffer sudden, excruciating bouts of pain."

"'Sometimes it feels like lightning strikes in my chest — and real sharp pains all over. And it's a deep pain. I can't touch it and make it better,' says Gray. 'Sometimes, I will be just balled up and crying, not able to do anything for myself.'"

"Gray is now 34 and lives in Forest, Miss. She volunteered to become the first patient in the United States with a genetic disease to get treated with the revolutionary gene-editing technique known as CRISPR."