You may be familiar with my CRISPR blog, which is focused on technical aspects of CRISPR/Cas9 methods - particularly for germline editing of mouse embryos. However, the ethical implications of gene editing in human embryos has been a very hot topic lately.
I've decided to start this blog to help me keep a record of links to various relevant articles, opinions, position statements, and the like. Much of this was triggered by a paper earlier this year demonstrating CRISPR-mediated gene editing in human embryos. I hope this blog will be useful, and hopefully, it will stimulate some discussion and thought among its readers.
CRISPR is so efficient and simple that it has brought urgency to the discussion of ethical issues surrounding gene editing in human somatic cells and embryos. Actually, many of these issues have been explored by ethicists before, primarily during the early days of gene therapy, but the technical ability to precisely target and change existing genes in human embryos just didn't exist then. CRISPR now allows the possibility to do this. But should we? And if so, under what circumstances should it be permissible?
As news items emerge on this topic I'll post links. In the meantime, I've got some catching up to do...Here is a timeline for various important items, starting in March of this year:
March 5, 2015: “Engineering the perfect baby.” – an article in MIT Technology Review hints that researchers in China have already performed gene editing in human embryos, though it has not yet been published.
I've decided to start this blog to help me keep a record of links to various relevant articles, opinions, position statements, and the like. Much of this was triggered by a paper earlier this year demonstrating CRISPR-mediated gene editing in human embryos. I hope this blog will be useful, and hopefully, it will stimulate some discussion and thought among its readers.
CRISPR is so efficient and simple that it has brought urgency to the discussion of ethical issues surrounding gene editing in human somatic cells and embryos. Actually, many of these issues have been explored by ethicists before, primarily during the early days of gene therapy, but the technical ability to precisely target and change existing genes in human embryos just didn't exist then. CRISPR now allows the possibility to do this. But should we? And if so, under what circumstances should it be permissible?
As news items emerge on this topic I'll post links. In the meantime, I've got some catching up to do...Here is a timeline for various important items, starting in March of this year:
March 5, 2015: “Engineering the perfect baby.” – an article in MIT Technology Review hints that researchers in China have already performed gene editing in human embryos, though it has not yet been published.
March 12, 2015: Edward Lanphier et al.’s letter published in Nature: “Don’t edit the human germ line.”
Lanphier is president and CEO of Sangamo
Biosciences, which is developing an HIV resistance therapy based on gene
editing in blood cells.
March 19, 2015: David Baltimore et al. publish astatement in Science calling for a moratorium on all human germline gene editing research.
April 17, 2015: “Germline editing: time for discussion.” Editorial in
Nature Medicine.
April 18, 2015: Liang et al publish the first report of gene
editing in human embryos in Protein Cell. The embryos used were triploid embryos that
were left over as a normal by-product of human IVF. Triploid embryos cannot develop to term, so no human babies
could have been generated from them.
Nevertheless, this paper generates some criticism.
April 28, 2015: Protein Cell publishes an editorial defending their decision to publish the Liang et al paper while also
adopting a cautionary stance. “Urgency to Rein in the Gene Editing
Technology”, Xiauxue Zhang.
April 29, 2015: I published a blog post describing why
Liang et al actually
overstated the off-target effects in their human embryo experiments.
April 29, 2015: NIH
Director’s statement on NIH funding for
human embryo gene editing research (spoiler alert: it’s not
allowed).
May 12, 2015: “CRISPR
germline engineering— the community
speaks.” Nature
Biotechnology article in which
numerous scientists were asked to comment on the issue.
May 18, 2015: U.S.
National Academy of Science (NAS) and National Academy of Medicine (NAM)
announce an initiative to develop guidelines
for editing human genomes.
May 22, 2015: “Eugenics lurk in the shadow of CRISPR”
- Robert Pollack, letter to Science.
May 26, 2015: The
USA White House announces support for moratorium.
June 19, 2015: “Germline gene therapy: We’re ready” - Henry I. Miller, letter to Science.
Sept. 5, 2015. “…Banning it is
not the answer” – op-ed piece by Sarah Norcross in The
Guardian.
Sept. 10, 2015. The Hinxton Group releases a detailed Statement on Genome Editing / Human Germline
Modification. The Hinxton Group is “An
International Consortium on Stem Cells, Ethics and Law.”
Sept. 12, 2015.
The UK MRC, Wellcome Trust and other groups announce a joint statement on
genome editing.
Sept. 14, 2015: The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) ,
Royal Society, U.S. NAS and U.S.
NAM announces plans to co-host an international summit on human gene editing in Washington, D. C. on Dec. 1-3, 2015.
Sept. 17, 2015: Scientists in the UK ask governmental
permission to perform limited gene editing experiments on leftover embryos from
IVF treatments. The embryos in this research would not
be kept more than 14 days nor would they be used to create pregnancies.
Sept. 18, 2015:
Interview with George Church in New
Scientist, in
defense of gene editing research and applications.
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