Researchers reported new retron‑based gene‑editing technologies that use bacterial retrons to produce multicopy single‑stranded DNA templates inside cells, enabling precise replacement and correction of large DNA stretches. The advances were presented in a Nature Biotechnology paper and complementary reports describing retron engineering for improved editing efficiency. The studies combined metagenomic discovery of retron reverse transcriptases with protein engineering to expand retron utility beyond niche bacterial systems. Groups showed retron systems can be adapted to mammalian cells and used to install complex edits without double‑strand breaks, offering an alternative route for disorders involving heterogeneous or large mutation sets. If these retron editors prove robust in human cells, they could change the therapeutic landscape for polygenic and multi‑variant genetic diseases (e.g., cystic fibrosis, certain hemophilias), enabling broader patient coverage than single‑site approaches. Next steps will be activity optimization in clinically relevant cell types and delivery strategies.