Just weeks after Chinese scientists induced internet tumult by saying had genetically aligned human embryos, Kathy Niakan, a arise cubicle inventor from London’s Francis Crick Institute, has inquired the British government’s conception valve and get a freedom to enact comparable study. The 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.
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Once the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) approves the application, the research project will focus on understanding the genes human embryos need to develop successfully, and any donated embryos will be used for research purposes only, reports Xinhua news agency. The research used non-viable embryos that could not result in a live birth, but nonetheless caused huge controversy.
The team emphasizes that no embryos would be grown to term.
Lovell-Badge says that China has guidelines on gene-editing work in embryos, “but these are not quite laws, and there would only have been local ethics committee approval”. Niakin added, “by making use of extra exact and environment friendly strategies in our analysis we hope to require fewer embryos and be extra profitable than the opposite strategies at present used”. Changing an embryo’s genes for therapeutic purposes in this way is illegal in most other parts of the world, due to concerns that people will use the technology to create “designer babies”.
The stage of embryo development that the research team plan to study also has tremendous potential for stem cell research, which will have benefits and advances in many different fields of medicine. “We’ve called for a voluntary worldwide moratorium on the genome editing of the human germline”, he said. “Because of its history of successful regulation, the United Kingdom could serve as a model for other countries”, she says.
Previously, when in this summer time a staff said that they had efficiently modified the genetic code of a human embryo, disapproving grumbles echoed all over the science world.
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This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on September 18, 2015.
