“UK scientists have been given the go-ahead by the fertility regulator to genetically modify human embryos. It is the first time a country has considered the DNA-altering technique in embryos and approved it. The research will take place at the Francis Crick Institute in London and aims to provide a deeper understanding of the earliest moments of human life. It will be illegal for the scientists to implant the modified embryos into a woman. But the field is attracting controversy over concerns it is opening the door to designer--or GM--babies. DNA is the blueprint of life--the instructions for building the human body. Gene editing allows the precise manipulation of DNA. ... The experiments will take place in the first seven days after fertilisation. During this time we go from a fertilised egg to a structure called a blastocyst, containing 200-300 cells. ... The work will be led by Dr. Kathy Niakan, who has spent a decade researching human development. Earlier this year, she explained why she had applied to edit human embryos: ‘We would really like to understand the genes needed for a human embryo to develop successfully into a healthy baby. The reason why it is so important is because miscarriages and infertility are extremely common, but they’re not very well understood.’” “Scientists get ‘gene editing’ go-ahead,” BBC, Feb. 1, 2016 Comments are closed.
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