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Hong Kong (CNN)Chinese scientists will become the first in the world to inject people with cells modified using gene-editing technology in a groundbreaking clinical trial next month.

A team led by Lu You, an oncologist at Sichuan University's West China Hospital in Chengdu, received ethical approval from the hospital's review board on July 6 to test gene-edited cells on lung cancer patients next month, according to scientific journal Nature.

The cells will be modified using CRISPR-Cas9 -- a new method of genetic engineering that allows scientists to edit DNA with precision and relative ease.

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"This technique is of great promise in bringing benefits to patients, especially the cancer patients whom we treat every day," Lu told the journal.

China gets into the genetic breakthrough business

CRISPR stands for clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeats -- regular patterns of DNA sequences which can be edited out of genes.

Cas9 is a type of modified protein injected into a body to work on the DNA, like a pair of scissors that can snip the genes.

The technique is based on a decade-old discovery that certain bacterial cells can identify invading viruses and chop up their DNA. CRISPR-Cas9 adapts that technique to allow us to edit genes, removing harmful diseases and even allowing the creation of hybrid human-animal organs to fill the transplant gap.

Unproven medical technique could save countless lives, billions of dollars

Photos: Growing human organs inside animals

In this human-mouse chimeric embryo, the human stem cells are shown in green and mouse cells are blue. Early in the research, scientists focused on integrating human cells into mouse embryos. However, pigs are now a preferred animal because their organs are roughly the same size as humans'.

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Photos: Growing human organs inside animals

New induced pluripotent stem cells from an adult human's skin and hair are being grown in a culture dish.

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Photos: Growing human organs inside animals

Researchers at Agropor field laboratory in Spain are collaborating with some American universities in chimera research.

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Photos: Growing human organs inside animals

This microscopic image shows human induced pluripotent stem cells, colored red, integrated into a pig embryo. Scientists hope these human cells can be harnessed to create organs for transplant patients one day.