Question of the month- CRISPR technology
Posted by the Node, on 23 April 2015
This week a group in China published a paper in Protein & Cell claiming to have genetically edited a human embryo using CRISPR technology. This paper is generating a lot of debate for many reasons, from the type of embryo used in the experiment, to where it was (or wasn’t) published. More broadly though, it forces us to think about the ethics of such work, especially since there are reports that other groups are also attempting similar experiments. So this month we would like to know:
Has CRISPR technology developed too quickly, before there has been the time to consider its technical hurdles and the ethics of its applications in certain systems, most notably human embryos?
Further reading:
– Link to the paper by Huang and colleagues: CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing in human tripronuclear zygotes
– News article in Nature reporting on this paper
– Also check out this discussion in Nature last month, as well as a set of recommendations published in Science.
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Several societies and organisations have now released statements on this issue:
ISSCR- http://www.isscr.org/home/about-us/news-press-releases/2015/2015/04/23/release-on-human-germline-genome-modification
SDB- http://sdbonline.org/uploads/files/SDBgenomeeditposstmt.pdf
NIH- http://www.nih.gov/about/director/04292015_statement_gene_editing_technologies.htm