Until now, only Chinese researchers have reported manipulations with the genetic material of embryos. It is now known that such experiments were carried out in Portland, allegedly with fewer side effects.
Human genetic material can be purposefully modified. But is this permissible from an ethical point of view? Until now, information on such experiments has been published only by Chinese scientists. Currently, scientists in the United States have modified the genome of a human embryo for the first time using the genetically engineered CRISPR-Cas9 technology - this happened at the Oregon University of Science and Health in Portland under the leadership of researcher Shukhrat Mitalipov.
Mitalipov's team was able to prove through experiments that defective, disease-causing genes can be safely and effectively corrected. When a gene is replaced at the stage of the embryonic pathway, not only an individual individual will be cured, the defective gene cannot be inherited by subsequent generations. The germline is understood as a special cell line, which, starting with a fertilized egg, in the course of a person's development, eventually leads to the formation of his gonad and the germ cells formed in it - eggs or spermatozoa.
In previous experiments, Chinese scientists constantly encountered unwanted side effects when tampering with the genome. Mitalipov's report has not yet been published, but according to rumors, during the experiments conducted in the United States, there were significantly fewer side effects - unplanned changes in genetic material that could be harmful.
Such experiments are prohibited in Germany
Mitalipov was born in Kazakhstan, in the former Soviet Union, he became famous in 2007 as the first scientist to clone monkeys. In 2013, he first produced human embryos by cloning. This is a scientist with a name and it is quite possible to expect from him success in "editing genomes".
No genetically modified embryos were hatched in China or the United States. They were killed a few days later. But it seems that it is only a matter of time before the first genetically modified human is born.
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In Germany, experiments that have been carried out in China and the United States are strictly prohibited by the embryo protection law. Researchers who violate the ban face imprisonment for up to five years. In February 2017, the US National Academy of Sciences announced that interference with the embryonic tract of embryos should be allowed if the goal is to cure a serious disease. Therefore, research work in the United States has ceased to be illegal.
Will it be blue eyes?
In the UK and Sweden, lawmakers have also given the green light to experimental interventions in the genome of human embryos. But so far, scientists from these countries have not reported any research advances. There are only three scientific publications on this topic worldwide - and they are all from China.
At present, it is not yet possible to predict how long it will take for research before it becomes possible to safely exclude inherited diseases using genetic engineering intervention. But when this goal is achieved, it will become technically possible to create "designer" babies with improved performance.
Will it be blue eyes or more intelligence? Society must draw the red line in time, without waiting for technology to mature for the market.
From an ethical point of view, the use of genome editing looks less problematic, when the intervention does not take place in the embryonic pathway, but defects are corrected in the adult genome. German law permits this, and pharmaceutical companies like Bayer are already investing big money in developing CRISPR-Cas9-based therapies.
Pharmaceutical concerns develop therapy
"Today, more than ten thousand diseases are thought to be caused by specific gene defects," said Kemal Malik, head of research at Bayer, "and CRISPR-Cas9 technology, by correcting the corresponding genetic defect, can cure many of these diseases."
It's time to start using this new type of therapy. Bayer teamed up with CRISPR-Cas9 technology author Emmanuelle Charpentier to found Casebia Therapeutics in Boston.
In April 2017, 11 German scientists caused a stir by demanding a relaxation of the ban on embryo research in a draft document circulated on behalf of the National Academy of Sciences. Under certain conditions, Germany should also be allowed to interfere with the human embryonic tract, they said.
Scientists argue that scientific progress is so rapid that genome editing without side effects for embryos will be carried out in the foreseeable future. And if it is really possible to treat diseases by editing the genome without risks, then scientists propose to discuss the question: whether the use of this opportunity will be declared unethical even then.
Norbert Lossau