Scientists Edited Human Embryos in the Lab, and It Was a Disaster

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The Francis Crick Institute used the tool CRISPR to edit genes in human embryos, leading to disastrous results. Over 50% of the edited embryos had countless unintended edits to their genomes which would lead to birth defects and disease, precisely what this research is attempting to prevent. This is not news, as these uncontrollable “mosaic” results have been seen in previous studies. Human DNA is extremely complicated, and the CRISPR tool is a …

WITH EMBRYO BASE EDITING, CHINA GETS ANOTHER CRISPR FIRST

from NCER: In a breakthrough first, Chinese scientists have just boldly used CRISPR to edit diseased genes in viable human embryos created through IVF. Because international ethical guidelines for research are not followed in China, they are comfortable with editing IVF embryos so as to affect future generations, referred to as germline gene editing. Any changes, whether beneficial or harmful, would be inherited by future generations, and therefore would not only violate the rights of …