I've had two heart attacks — could gene editing help my chronically high cholesterol?

A new way of managing harmful blood fats is emerging in the form of novel gene-editing treatments designed to inactivate or suppress key liver genes involved in regulating cholesterol levels

Christos Soteriou and his son Jade. Familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic condition which causes high cholesterol levels from birth, has long plagued Soteriou’s family

When the chance came to participate in a clinical trial testing a novel way of lowering dangerously high levels of blood fats, Christos Soteriou, a 51-year-old from South Australia, jumped at the opportunity.

Familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic condition which causes high cholesterol levels from birth, has long plagued Soteriou’s family. His father died of heart disease at 46, while Soteriou himself required a quadruple bypass in his late 20s. “I always suspected that I was at risk, but I didn’t think it would hit me so young,” he says.