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posted by martyb on Thursday July 27 2017, @03:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the baby-steps dept.

U.S. scientists have genetically modified human embyros using CRISPR and have apparently avoided the worst of the off-target effects that have plagued previous efforts. The results are unpublished and the team is not commenting yet:

The first known attempt at creating genetically modified human embryos in the United States has been carried out by a team of researchers in Portland, Oregon, Technology Review has learned.

The effort, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University, involved changing the DNA of a large number of one-cell embryos with the gene-editing technique CRISPR, according to people familiar with the scientific results.

Until now, American scientists have watched with a combination of awe, envy, and some alarm as scientists elsewhere were first to explore the controversial practice. To date, three previous reports of editing human embryos were all published by scientists in China.

Now Mitalipov is believed to have broken new ground both in the number of embryos experimented upon and by demonstrating that it is possible to safely and efficiently correct defective genes that cause inherited diseases.

Although none of the embryos were allowed to develop for more than a few days—and there was never any intention of implanting them into a womb—the experiments are a milestone on what may prove to be an inevitable journey toward the birth of the first genetically modified humans.

Also at STAT News.

Previously: Chinese Scientists Have Genetically Modified Human Embryos
NIH Won't Fund Human Germline Modification
Group of Scientists and Bioethicists Back Genetic Modification of Human Embryos
The International Summit on Human Gene Editing
UK Scientist Makes the Case for Editing Human Embryos
Second Chinese Team Reports Gene Editing in Human Embryos
Scientists Keep Human Embryos Alive Longer Outside of the Womb
Francis Collins Retains Position as Director of the National Institutes of Health


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @04:47PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @04:47PM (#545262)

    I do all my genome editing with sed, you insensitive clod!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @05:12PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @05:12PM (#545277)

    Lazy punks, if you aren't manually coding the bits you're a slacker just like your old man!

    • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Thursday July 27 2017, @06:06PM (2 children)

      by Unixnut (5779) on Thursday July 27 2017, @06:06PM (#545306)

      Nah, real men just bone the woman directly, and the DNA arranges itself. :-)

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 28 2017, @01:09PM (1 child)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 28 2017, @01:09PM (#545740) Journal

        If you are up on current news, you would know sperm counts are dropping. Thus it would take more boning sessions in order to achieve conception. Due to the increased effort, it is simply not worth doing. So no more boning women.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Friday July 28 2017, @01:33PM

          by Unixnut (5779) on Friday July 28 2017, @01:33PM (#545750)

          > Thus it would take more boning sessions in order to achieve conception. Due to the increased effort, it is simply not worth doing. So no more boning women.

          I can't vouch for others, but I very much enjoy boning women. Having more boning sessions is a-ok with me! The increased effort just means I get fitter from all the exercise. Indeed I have boned women where there was no chance at all of pregnancy, but still found it very moreish!

          Also, sperm counts are dropping in "feminised societies", the rest of the world (euphemistically named as " high machismo" in TFA ) are more than willing and able to take up the slack. Assuming we even have to keep the accelerated pace of human population growth, which I don't think is necessary.