In just a few short years, the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 has
infiltrated biology labs around the world. This summer, scientists working
in a U.S. lab announced they’d used CRISPR to modify viable human embryos,
which were kept alive just a few days. The research is a first in the
United States, though scientists in China have conducted similar
experiments.
This latest effort, led by researchers at Oregon Health and Science
University, also succeeded in avoiding unintended effects — something
that’s plagued other researchers. The team fixed a mutation by removing a
disease-causing gene from an embryo. The repair, reported in August in
Nature, corrected an inheritable heart condition, passed down by the
embryo’s father, the study’s lone sperm donor.