Since the start of the deadly AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, scientists have been working towards a cure. Now, they may be close to finding one. Researchers have developed a method to cut the viral DNA from a person’s infected cells. It is called CRISPR/Cas9 and it means the person could be virus-free. DNA is a substance that carries genetic information in the cells of animals and plants. This gene-editing took place in a scientific lab, but has not been tested on humans yet. “It’s a big step,” said Kamel Khalili, Ph.D. He is lead researcher and chair at the Department of Neuroscience at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his team made the discovery. But more tests have to be done to know if it will be a cure for the millions of patients infected with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS. Antiretroviral drugs have been doing a good job of keeping the AIDS virus from reproducing.