In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, is joined by William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories, to discuss the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent approval of two gene therapies for sickle cell disease.

Their discussion includes:

• The cause and characteristics of sickle cell disease.
• How the new cell-based gene therapies, Casgevy and Lyfgenia, work in the body.
• Bioethical and accessibility considerations of innovative treatments like gene-editing therapies.
• A brief update on the status of the FDA’s proposed rule on laboratory-developed tests.