Chinese researchers crossed a threshold last year when they used CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tools to modify human embryos, and now Oregon researchers have reportedly crossed it as well.
A report in MIT Technology Review suggests that the team at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland improved upon the results from China by modifying embryos earlier in their development.
OHSU confirmed that a study was in the works, but said there was nothing more to share at this time. “Results of the peer-reviewed study are expected to be published soon in a scientific journal,” OHSU spokesman Erik Robinson said in an email to GeekWire.
Genetic experiments with embryos are controversial because they could involve changing the human genetic code in ways that can be passed along to a person’s progeny. That raises the prospect of creating subspecies of genetically modified humans with enhanced traits. In recent years, CRISPR-Cas9 and other gene-editing techniques have revolutionized biology because they make it much easier to splice in or remove targeted strings of genetic code.
Extending the technology to the human genome could bring great benefits, said Charles Murry, director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “The implications are very large, because it gives us the ability to permanently eradicate a genetic disease from a family’s pedigree,” he said in a UW Medicine video. “As a physician, that’s something that’s extremely exciting to me.”
However, the procedure isn’t perfect: The Chinese researchers reported off-target effects and a high incidence of mosaicism – that is, a mishmash of cells, some with the altered genetic coding and some without. The Tech Review report quoted unidentified sources as saying that the OHSU researchers, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, headed off those problems by injecting human eggs with the CRISPR molecular tools simultaneously with in-vitro fertilization.
Refer: https://www.geekwire.com/2017/report-oregon-researchers-use-crispr-edit-genes-human-embryos/
OHSU confirmed that a study was in the works, but said there was nothing more to share at this time. “Results of the peer-reviewed study are expected to be published soon in a scientific journal,” OHSU spokesman Erik Robinson said in an email to GeekWire.
Genetic experiments with embryos are controversial because they could involve changing the human genetic code in ways that can be passed along to a person’s progeny. That raises the prospect of creating subspecies of genetically modified humans with enhanced traits. In recent years, CRISPR-Cas9 and other gene-editing techniques have revolutionized biology because they make it much easier to splice in or remove targeted strings of genetic code.
Extending the technology to the human genome could bring great benefits, said Charles Murry, director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “The implications are very large, because it gives us the ability to permanently eradicate a genetic disease from a family’s pedigree,” he said in a UW Medicine video. “As a physician, that’s something that’s extremely exciting to me.”
However, the procedure isn’t perfect: The Chinese researchers reported off-target effects and a high incidence of mosaicism – that is, a mishmash of cells, some with the altered genetic coding and some without. The Tech Review report quoted unidentified sources as saying that the OHSU researchers, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, headed off those problems by injecting human eggs with the CRISPR molecular tools simultaneously with in-vitro fertilization.
Refer: https://www.geekwire.com/2017/report-oregon-researchers-use-crispr-edit-genes-human-embryos/
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