For Jo Cameron, it takes the sight of blood or the smell of her own flesh burning for her to know that something is very wrong. As the 71-year-old Scottish woman recounted to The New York Times earlier this week, she has lived a life virtually free of pain, fear, and anxiety, thanks to a missing stretch of DNA. Doctors discovered there was something different about Cameron when she came in for surgery and turned down painkillers after the nerve blocker from her operation wore off. After years of investigating, they identified the never-before-seen mutation believed to be responsible for her almost supernatural pain tolerance. Weirdly, any wounds she gets also heal faster than other people, and she cannot recall ever having felt anxious, depressed, or scared.
Crispr Gene Editing Could One Day Cut Away Human Pain