Pharmaceutical GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have thus far proven to help regulate blood sugar and curb appetites. They are helping people shed pounds and manage diabetes, but they can be expensive and hard to come by.

Imagine if your body could naturally produce the chemicals necessary to maintain weight and blood sugar? That sounds a lot like the team from the University of Ottawa. They found a way to turn a plant into an Ozempic factory.

Now, researchers from the University of Osaka in Japan genetically edited mice so their livers would produce exenatide, an older, pre-Ozempic GLP-1 drug. And it worked. They sustained drug levels for months, lost weight, ate less, and saw improved insulin sensitivity, all without having to take a single shot.

Using CRISPR (a gene editing tool), the scientists installed the gene for exenatide right into the rodents’ livers, noting an internal, sustained drug production for nearly 28 weeks. No pharmacy trips. No strict schedule of shots that leaves you wondering if you did it already or not.

Scientists Just Taught Mice Livers to Make Their Own Ozempic. Are We Next?

This proof-of-concept could upend how we think about chronic disease treatment. Instead of relying on regular dosing, imagine a future where a one-time gene edit turns your body into a mini pharma lab.

Extrapolating from there, it could lead to a world where fewer people need injections of these medications. And the effects would last longer than an injectable’s effects, which would both have the knock-on effect of lowering costs.

This has only been tested in mice so far, so let’s wait and see until human trials are initiated, whenever that is. Even then, it’s likely going to take years before we see promising results on a human level.

Mice are used as research subjects since they have a lot of genetic and biological similarities to humans, along with the fact that they’re easy to breed. But the human body is complicated, and therapies that work in mice don’t always scale up to people, even if mice are a decent enough analog for testing purposes.

Besides, reprogramming someone’s liver to pump out a synthetic hormone 24 hours a day isn’t exactly as plug-and-play as a home appliance. There are tons of lifelong side effects and complications to consider and to (hopefully) catch before a drug or therapy makes it to market.

Until then, your best bet for medical-grade weight loss remains the weekly GLP-1 stab. But give it a few years; you might be swapping syringes for a CRISPR tune-up that tells your liver to make its own Ozempic.