Scientists at the UK’s Francis Crick Institute have petitioned the government for permission to genetically modify human embryos for the first time as part of a series of experiments designed to learn more about infertility and the early stages of human development.
According to BBC News, lead investigator and stem cell scientist Dr. Kathy Niakan said that the goal was to study the genes which human embryos need to successfully develop, and that in line with British regulations, the embryos would be destroyed and not used following the study.
Dr. Niakan emphasized that she had no intention of genetically altering babies for reproductive purposes, Reuters reported. In a statement, she said that the knowledge gained by modifying the donated embryos “may improve embryo development after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and might provide better clinical treatments for infertility.”
The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) confirmed that it had received an application to use the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique in a licensed research project, and said that the request would be considered in due time. No ruling is expected for at least several weeks, possibly even months, BBC News said.
Research has ‘tremendous scientific potential,’ experts say
The request comes months after a team of Chinese scientists announced that they had genetically modified human embryos, sparking a global outcry among those who believe such research may ultimately lead to the use of the CRISPR-Cas9 technique to create designer babies.
The US has imposed a moratorium on federally-funded research in this area, but in the UK, such experiments can be conducted for research purposes, provided scientists obtain a license. Edited embryos cannot be used in IVF treatments, though – something that Francis Crick Institute head Professor Robin Lovell-Badge told the BBC would be “foolish” at this point anyway.
“While I am certain that people in other countries will be paying close attention to both how the HFEA handle this license application and, if it is granted, how the research progresses, it does not really warrant this attention,” Lovell-Badge told Scientific American. “The use of genome-editing techniques in this context is really the same as using any other method on an embryo that is not going to be implanted into a woman, and which will be destroyed after a few days.”
Dr. Sarah Chan from Edinburgh University’s Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics said the request for HFEA permission “should be cause for confidence, not concern,” telling Reuters, “Genome editing research undeniably has tremendous scientific potential, and UK scientists are poised to make a world-leading contribution to this exciting field.”
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