Metabolic conditions linked to obesity could be treated by removing fat from a person, turning it into energy-burning “beige fat” using CRISPR gene editing and then implanting the altered fat back into the body, animal studies suggest.

“It would be a personalised therapy for metabolic disease,” says Silvia Corvera at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

While most fat merely stores energy, some types – known as brown and beige fat – burn glucose to produce heat. People have small …