Diseases caused by genetic mutations could be consigned to history after scientists found a way to edit human DNA one letter at a time.

Debilitating conditions such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anaemia and haemophilia may soon be curable through the technique in which "exceedingly rare" anomalies can be captured and amplified.

"For our method to work, we needed to find a way to efficiently identify a single mutation among hundreds of normal, healthy cells." said report co-author Dr Yuichiro Miyaoka, of the Gladstone Institutes in California.

"So we designed a special fluorescent probe that would distinguish the mutated sequence from the original."

This allowed the researchers to detect mutant cells at a level of sensitivity more than 100 times greater than traditional methods.

Lead researcher, Dr Bruce Conklin, said the team's study, published in the journal Nature Methods, "could be the basis for the next phase of human genetics research".

He added: "Some of the most devastating diseases we face are caused by the tiniest of genetic changes."

"But we are hopeful that our technique, by treating the human genome like lines of computer code, could one day be used to reverse these harmful mutations, and essentially repair the damaged code."

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