Genetic Engineering Publications - GEG Tech top picks

In this work, the scientists have co-injected Cas9 mRNA, gRNAs, and donor DNA, they successfully introduced the naturally occurring CCR5Δ32 allele into early human 3PN embryos. In the embryos containing the engineeredCCR5Δ32 allele, however, the other alleles at the same locus could not be fully controlled because they either remained wild type or contained indel mutations. This work has implications for the development of therapeutic treatments of genetic disorders, and it demonstrates that significant technical issues remain to be addressed. The authors advocate preventing any application of genome editing on the human germline until after a rigorous and thorough evaluation and discussion are undertaken by the global research and ethics communities.

Researchers in China have reported editing the genes of human embryos to try to make them resistant to HIV infection. Their paper which used CRISPR-editing tools in non-viable embryos that were destroyed after three days is only the second published claim of gene editing in human embryos.