On Wednesday, April 22, 2015, reports surfaced that Chinese researchers had performed germline editing in an attempt to remove a gene responsible for a common blood disorder.
The news drew negative reviews from leading researchers in the field. They denounced the experience a week before researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou published their results.
In the March issue of Science, biologists called for a moratorium on germline editing (modifying the DNA of human embryos) until further open discussion of the potential medical, legal, and ethical implications of doing so can take place.
“Let's make sure that this research is done to eliminate any harm,” urged Jennifer Doudna, chair of the Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.
She is a pioneer in CRISPR-Cas9, an innovative genome editing technique that has been applied by researchers at Sun Yat-sen University. In this method, researchers use an enzyme complex to replace specific genes.
CRISPR was first described by Jennifer Doudna and her colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier in Science in 2012. Despite the novelty of the technology, gene editing has been around for over a decade. However, the CRISPR method has expanded access to gene modifications, made it more accessible.
CRISPR has been called a major advancement in biotechnology. Last November, Ms. Doudna and Ms. Charpentier were both awarded the Breakthrough Prize and received $ 3 million each.
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Extensive clinical studies in the field of gene modification have existed for a long time, but until now they have been aimed at editing genes in human somatic (non-germ) cells.
Dangers of DNA editing in embryos
Gene editing in germ cells raises a number of medical and ethical concerns. Previously, genetic modifications were mostly associated with therapeutic uses, for example, in the fight against AIDS.
Somatic cell editing does not put the modified genes on the next generation, while the hypothetical “edited child” can pass on the modified genes to the next generation. This is fraught with unknown risks, although researchers from Sun Yat-sen University claim to have used non-viable embryos.
"Scientists currently lack an adequate understanding of the safety and potential long-term risks associated with genome germline modification," the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) said in a March statement. The organization has called for a moratorium on clinical editing of the human germ line.
The ISSCR argues that scientists have not yet reached a consensus on the therapeutic potential of germline editing. Experts also have not yet come to a consensus on how to distinguish therapeutic techniques from attempts to "improve a person", which are usually considered taboo in the scientific community.
“There is concern that germline engineering will lead to attempts to create superhumans and custom babies for those who can afford it,” writes MIT Technology Review editor-in-chief Antonio Regalado. "Why not then create a very intelligent group of people who could become future leaders and scientists?"
Currently, the prospects for the emergence of a world inhabited by specially created people remain science fiction. The study of the genetics of intelligence is in its infancy, and it is considered impossible to artificially improve human intelligence.
However, such research is being carried out at the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) and is partially funded by the government. “People have chosen to ignore the genetics of intelligence, and they have been doing so for many years,” said Zhao Bowen, who oversees BGI's Hong Kong office. - People believe that this is a dubious topic, especially in the West. But they don't think so in China."
