Earlier this year, Chinese scientists announced that they had genetically manipulated human IVF embryos for research purposes in a landmark study.
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Researchers at The Francis Crick Institute in London want to use a controversial genetic technique to carry out research into infertility. Several techniques developed in recent years allow researchers to easily and accurately add, delete, or modify genes in cells. One area of research aims to uncover why some women have a miscarriage before the fetus reaches term.
Niakin insists the research will not lead to so-called designer babies, despite fears such technology could be used to engineer flawless humans.
Use of genome editing techniques on human embryos is a territory that is constantly under debate for there are supporters who believe that the research will enable us to find cure to some of the most deadly diseases in the world and opponents of the technology crying foul that it will be used for designer babies and other unethical purposes. The research would use embryos left over at fertility clinics, donated by couples with a surplus after IVF treatment.
Kathy Niakan, from The Francis Crick Institute in London and her colleagues have filed an application with the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) for a license to perform genome editing on human embryos.
Those guidelines “would not preclude gene editing of human embryos for research to address critical questions in embryology, as long as the experiments are approved after a rigorous process of stem cell research oversight”, Daley wrote. Because of these differences, the scientists would like to work directly on human IVF embryos by, for instance, deleting certain genes using Crispr/Cas9 to see how this affects the development of the tissue that gives rise to the placenta. Good regulation, she says, can help to make it clear to scientists what they can and cannot do. That body, which regulates fertility treatment and embryo research, has confirmed that it has received its first application for a gene-editing licence using CRISPR/Cas9.
British scientists have applied for permission to edit the genes of human embryos in a series of experiments aimed at finding out more about the earliest stages of human development.
Niakan is one of a growing band of scientists working with a powerful new genome editing procedure called Crispr-Cas9.
Sarah Chan, a fellow at the Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics at the University of Edinburgh said that the news should be “cause of confidence, not concern”.
So deep are these concerns that the United States government has completely banned government-funded research in America.
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“UK scientists are poised to make a world-leading contribution to this exciting field”, she said. “At the same time, we should be reassured to know that this work is being carried out under a robust regulatory scheme that ensures high scientific and ethical standards”.
