Carles J. Ciudad

New Capabilities

Co-lead author of the PCSK9 PPRH study

For two decades, lowering LDL cholesterol meant statins—daily pills that work for most but leave roughly one in five patients with muscle pain or liver enzyme changes severe enough to quit. On May 1, researchers from the University of Barcelona and Oregon Health & Science University reported that engineered DNA reduced LDL by nearly 50 percent in mice. A single injection of this engineered DNA molecule silences the gene controlling how the liver clears LDL.

Updated May 31