People forced to avoid gluten could soon have their bread (and cake) and eat it. Now there are strains of wheat that do not produce the forms of gluten that trigger a dangerous immune reaction in as many as 1 in 100 people. 
 
 Because the new strains still contain some kinds of gluten, though, the wheat can still be used to bake bread. “It’s regarded as being pretty good, certainly better than anything on the gluten-free shelves,” says Jan Chojecki of PBL-Ventures in the UK, who is working with investors in North America to market products made with this wheat. 
 
 Gluten is the general term for all the proteins in wheat and related cereals. During baking, these proteins link up to form elastic chains, which is what holds breads and cakes together as they rise. 
 
 But some people have an autoimmune condition called coeliac disease. Their immune systems respond incorrectly to gluten, which damages the gut lining and can lead to diarrhoea, vomiting, malnutrition, brain damage and even gut cancers. 
 
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 Not all gluten proteins trigger this response, though: the main culprit is a group called gliadins. So Francisco Barro’s team at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture in Cordoba, Spain, set about getting rid of them. 
 
 Acceptable bread 
 
 They used a genetic modification technique to remove 90 per cent of the gliadins in wheat. They did this by adding genes that trigger a process called RNA interference, which stops specific proteins being made. But because the gliadin genes themselves remain intact, in theory, there is a risk that the wheat could start making the crucial proteins again. 
 
 So Barro’s team next tried using CRISPR gene-editing to get rid of the genes entirely. This is a huge task because there are no fewer than 45 copies of the gene for the main gliadin protein that causes problems. Nevertheless, Barro’s team report that they have already managed to knock out 35 of the 45 genes. 
 
 More genes need to be disabled before the CRISPR strain is ready for testing, but it should be worth all the effort: the team have already shown that the GM wheat strain makes an acceptable bread. It cannot be used for making large sliced loafs, but is good enough for baguettes and rolls, says Chojecki. 
 
 “Some people will be very happy with this,” says Sarah Sleet, head of patients’ group Coeliac UK, not least because sticking to a gluten-free diet is difficult. 
 
 However, others may not want to eat genetically modified foods, or to take the risk that some immune-triggering components remain in the wheat, Sleet says. 
 
 Small trials of the GM wheat involving 10 and 20 people with coeliac disease are already being carried out in Mexico and Spain. “All I can say is that the results are very encouraging,” says Chojecki. 
 
 Journal reference: Plant Biotechnology Journal, DOI: 10.1111/pbi.12837 
 
 Read more: Would ‘good gluten’ foods work for people who eat gluten-free? 
 
 This article appears in print under the headline “Modified wheat for gluten-free bread” 

 Good news for celiacs! Scientists have genetically modified wheat making it free from the types of gluten that trigger celiac disease. This means that sufferers might finally be able to enjoy tasty wheat-based snacks. 
 
 Gluten refers to proteins found in wheat, barley, and rye. It is important in baking as it forms elastic chains, maintaining the structure of baked goods as they rise. 
 
 Celiac disease affects about 1 percent of people. It’s an autoimmune disorder triggered when gluten is eaten. The affliction comes with a range of nasty symptoms from stomach pains, diarrhea, and vomiting to headaches and iron deficiency. It can even lead to bowel cancer and brain damage. 
 
 Together celiac disease and gluten sensitivity affect over 7 percent of people in the western world. A problem when it’s found in so many of foods that we eat. 
 
 To combat this issue, researchers from the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture in Cordoba, Spain, decided to engineer a brand-new type of wheat that leaves out the gluten. Their findings are published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal. 
 
 The team used a technique called CRISPR/Cas9 to remove the genes in wheat that make gliadins – the gluten proteins most likely to cause the celiac response. This was no mean feat as there are 45 copies of the main gliadin gene, but the scientists have already gotten rid of 35. They need to keep working to remove all the genes, but what they’ve created so far has given some positive results, successfully making baguettes and rolls. 
 
 “It’s regarded as being pretty good, certainly better than anything on the gluten-free shelves,” Jan Chojecki of PBL-Ventures, who wants to market products made with the wheat, told New Scientist. 
 
 The researchers are already testing their new wheat on small numbers of celiac patients. “All I can say is that the results are very encouraging,” Chojecki said. 
 
 Gluten is a bit of a hot topic at the moment. More and more people are declaring themselves gluten-free and giving up products that contain it. Self-diagnosis is rarely a good thing, and only about 16 percent of people who think they can’t eat gluten actually have a problem. 
 
 Despite what fashionable diet trends suggest, avoiding gluten isn’t actually good for you. In fact, it can even increase your risk of getting type 2 diabetes. 
 
 Often when people claim they feel better for giving up gluten, it has nothing to do with gluten itself. Instead, they’ve just switched to a healthier diet, replacing pizza and cake with fresh veg. So if you think you might be reacting to gluten, go to the doctor rather than turning to faddy health blogs for medical advice. It's much harder for a doctor to diagnose you as celiac if you've already cut it out of your diet.
– Those with celiac disease may soon be able to eat wheat bread. Wheat and related cereals contain proteins called gluten that hold breads and cakes together, and certain forms of gluten cause an immune reaction in some people, leaving them unable to eat wheat, barley, and rye, per IFL Science. But scientists are working on strains of wheat that don't produce the forms of gluten that are dangerous for people with celiac disease, a group called gliadins, New Scientist reports. Francisco Barro and a team at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture in Cordoba, Spain, have set about removing gliadins, first by using a genetic modification technique and then, more successfully, by using CRISPR gene editing. Via that process, the team is working to eliminate all 45 copies of the problematic genes; so far, they've disabled 35 of them. Since there are still some forms of gluten in the wheat, just not the forms that cause trouble for those with celiac, the grain can still be used to make bread—baguettes and rolls at this point, not larger sliced loaves. And that bread is "pretty good, certainly better than anything on the gluten-free shelves" currently, says one of the people working to market products made with the new wheat. (In layman's terms, gluten is "what makes bread delicious," Gizmodo explains, which is why gluten-free products using replacements such as rice flour are often "terrible.") Small trials of the genetically modified wheat are already taking place in Mexico and Spain with "very encouraging" results, she adds; per a new study on the low-gluten bread, immunoreactivity was reduced in subjects by 85%. Researchers must successfully disable more genes before full testing can take place. (Bad news for gluten-free Catholics.)