U.S. scientists edit genome of human embryo, but cast doubt on possibility of ‘designer babies’
Creating “designer babies” with a revolutionary new genome-editing technique would be extremely difficult, according to the first U.S. experiment that tried to replace a disease-causing gene in a viable human embryo.
Partial results of the study had leaked out last week, ahead of its publication in Nature on Wednesday, stirring critics’ fears that genes for desired traits — from HIV resistance to strong muscles — might soon be easily slipped into embryos. In fact, the researchers found the opposite: They were unable to insert a lab-made gene.
Biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University, who led the first-of-its-kind experiment, described the key result as “very surprising” and “dramatic.”
The “external DNA” provided to fertilized human eggs developing in a lab dish “was never used,” he told STAT. The scientists excised a mutated, heart-disease-causing gene from the embryos — agene that came from sperm used to create them through in vitro fertilization and supplied them with a healthy replacement. But every single
