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from the the-best-made-plans-of-mice-and-men... dept.
The human embryo editing study first reported by MIT Technology Review last week has been published in Nature. Scientists led by the Oregon Health & Science University's Shoukhrat Mitalipov edited human embryos to remove the MYBPC3 mutation associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy:
The experiment corrected the defect in nearly two-thirds of several dozen embryos, without causing potentially dangerous mutations elsewhere in the DNA.
None of the embryos were used to try to create a baby. But if future experiments confirm the techniques are safe and effective, the scientists say the same approach could be used to prevent a long list of inheritable diseases. "Potentially, we're talking about thousands of genes and thousands of patients," says Paula Amato, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. She was a member of the scientific team from the U.S., China and South Korea.
[...] Amato and others stress that their work is aimed at preventing terrible diseases, not creating genetically enhanced people. And they note that much more research is needed to confirm the technique is safe and effective before anyone tries to make a baby this way. But scientists hoping to continue the work in the U.S. face many regulatory obstacles. The National Institutes of Health will not fund any research involving human embryos (the new work was funded by Oregon Health & Science University). And the Food and Drug Administration is prohibited by Congress from considering any experiments that involve genetically modified human embryos.
Nevertheless, the researchers say they're hopeful about continuing the work, perhaps in Britain. The United Kingdom has permitted genetic experiments involving human embryos forbidden in the United States. "If other countries would be interested, we would be happy to work with their regulatory bodies," says Shoukhrat Mitalipov, director of the Oregon Health & Science University's Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy.
Also at NYT, MIT, BBC, Science Magazine, and Scientific American.
Correction of a pathogenic gene mutation in human embryos (open, DOI: 10.1038/nature23305) (DX)
Previously: First Known Attempt at Genetically Modifying Human Embryos in the U.S. is an Apparent Success
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 04 2017, @03:37AM
It's true that you can screen embryos for diseases before using them in IVF. In fact, that is one criticism of the study noted in the NPR article:
If two people would have a defective child 100% of the time, good luck banning them from procreating, or from doing the slightly better thing by correcting diseased embryos.
The real story is that while the researchers say this is for correcting genetic diseases, they will polish all of the techniques necessary to create a designer baby. It doesn't matter if a rich couple are duds or studs, they will be able to pick and choose the "best" (or favored) genes, with more control and overwhelming results than carefully picking the "best" two people on the planet. Gay and lesbian couples will be able to create biological children [time.com] that are a mix of the genes from the couple with designer-picked genes added for good measure. Money makes the world go round (pregnant), baby.
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