Chinese Scientists Genetically Modify Human Embryos

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Chinese Scientists Genetically Modify Human Embryos

This marks the first time CRISPR has been used on viable human embryos.

Chinese scientists have successfully edited the genetic information of human embryos.

The researchers used CRISPR to remove genetic mutations from a handful of viable human embryos and have published the results in the journal Molecular Genetics and Genomics.

 

CRISPR, which is a new technique that enables targeted genetic modification, has been one of the biggest breakthroughs in genetics in the past decade.

It lets scientists target a specific section of DNA, remove it from the genome, and even replace it with something else if they wish.

This technique works on all animals, including humans.

 

Of course, genetically modifying human beings with an unproven technique creates several ethical and possibly legal dilemmas, so most researchers have limited themselves to using CRISPR on microorganisms or small tissue samples.

 

 However, since at least 2015 a team of scientists in China has been experimenting with the technique on human embryos.

At first, they limited themselves to using non-viable embryos, which were fertilized by two different sperm and could never result in a live birth.

However, new research published in the journal Molecular Genetics and Genomics reveals that the group is now experimenting with viable embryos, which is more ethically dubious.

 

The team intentionally gave the embryos rare genetic disorders, and then attempted to cure those disorders with CRISPR. The researchers found that CRISPR completely or partially removed the genetic disorders in most of the embryos that carried them, which is a promising result.

 

While there are many unresolved ethical questions surrounding these human embryo tests, the results conjure a future where developing human fetuses are tested for genetic disorders in the womb and CRISPR is used to correct them.

Hopefully these researchers will run that by an ethics board before they try it though.

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2123973-first-results-of-crispr-gene-editing-of-normal-embryos-released/