The British government has allowed researchers to conduct experiments to change the genomes of human embryos
Dr. Kathy Niakan of the Francis Crick Institute (London) applied for experiments with embryos last year in 2015. And so the regulatory body - the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) - satisfied it. The message that the corresponding permission had been issued appeared on February 1 on the Institute's website.
Scientists promise: the development of "experimental embryos" ", that is, fertilized human eggs, they will stop a maximum of 7 days. In this case, the number of proliferated cells will not exceed 250.
Eggs and sperm will be provided by donors participating in in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs. But in no case will embryos enter the mothers' organism.
The purpose of the experiments: to make the IVF procedure more effective and to minimize miscarriages. To do this, it is necessary to identify the genes that are most active in the first days of embryo development. And to identify them, according to scientists, you can turn off or remove one or the other and observing what changes occur in the embryo. Such interference is called genome editing.
It would seem nothing special. But the public is scared. And scientists have already divided into two camps. Some are supporters of upcoming studies, others, respectively, are opponents. Both of them are sure that IVF is just the beginning, and then the researchers will begin to actually edit the genomes of the embryos in order to grow “edited” people. And this is by no means a fantasy. A technique that allows you to cut out some regions from DNA and insert others in their place has been created. Called CRISPR / Cas9. In 2012, 2013 and 2015, the scientific community recognized it as a breakthrough one.
The difference is that some believe that "editing" will cure hereditary diseases. After all, it will be possible to remove defective genes from the genome and replace them with high-quality ones. Goodbye Down syndrome, hemophilia, myotonic dystonia, color blindness and a hundred other ailments. Others are frightened by the prospect of artificially created monsters. And not only - many would not like to see children molded, as they say, by order.
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Nobody knows yet what genetically modified people will be
The fears of both are justified, and therefore disputes do not stop. But it is too early to speak about the real benefit or threat of “editing”. Similar experiments have been conducted in China for 4 years. So far, there is little success - out of 86 embryos, at least 4 managed to be edited somehow. What the British scientists will get is not yet known. They haven't started yet - they are now waiting for permission from the ethics committee.
With cloning - about the same. The notorious Dolly the Sheep - the first creature to be cloned - appeared after 286 unsuccessful attempts. And now whoever is not being cloned. And it will come to people - give time. Including before edited ones. There are no insurmountable scientific obstacles on this path - only ethical and religious ones, which sometimes yield to the onslaught of progress.
SPECIALIST OPINION
Scientists at a crossroads
“Now almost every laboratory working at a serious level can change the genome,” said RAS Corresponding Member Alexei Tomilin, Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Stem Cells at the Institute of Cytology, RAS (St. Petersburg), in his report at a recent meeting of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). - The combination of cellular and reproductive technologies together with editing the genome, on the one hand, opens up completely unique opportunities for defeating hereditary diseases, and on the other hand, creates the danger of editing the human embryo - this topic has become the subject of intense public discussion.
