Scientists respond as maverick cloning scientist Dr Panos Zavos announces successful experiments to create cloned
embryos using DNA from dead people.
A California company reported today that it has, for the first time, cloned human
embryos using DNA from adult skin cells.
Not exact matches
The statement on Thursday comes amid a growing debate over the
use of powerful new gene editing tools in human eggs, sperm and
embryos, which have the power to change the
DNA of unborn children.
Unlike the controversial method of tissue harvesting that requires some human
embryos to be destroyed, the new cloning technique can
use a patient's own skin cells — combined with an unfertilized human egg — to create tissue with a
DNA match.
Instead of
using a piece of
DNA that the researchers injected to repair cuts made by CRISPR / Cas9, human
embryos used their own
DNA from another chromosome as a repair template.
Altering
DNA in germline cells —
embryos, eggs, and sperm, or cells that give rise to them — may be
used to cure genetic diseases for future generations, provided it is done only to correct disease or disability, not to enhance people's health or abilities, a report issued February 14 by the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine recommends.
By
using engineered zinc - finger nucleases (ZFNs) designed to target an integrated reporter and two endogenous rat genes, Immunoglobulin M (IgM) and Rab38, we demonstrate that a single injection of
DNA or messenger RNA encoding ZFNs into the one - cell rat
embryo leads to a high frequency of animals carrying 25 to 100 % disruption at the target locus.
A 2017 experiment, also in China,
used CRISPR to edit
DNA in normal, presumably viable fertilized eggs, or one - cell human
embryos.
Using abnormally - fertilised human
embryos (I.e. With three sets of
DNA instead of two), they have studied whether the a human gene can be modified.
GenePeeks, based in New York, sequences the prospective parents»
DNA and
uses this to create thousands of different virtual
embryos.
Amid rumors that precision gene - editing techniques have been
used to modify the
DNA of human
embryos, researchers have called for a moratorium on the
use of the technology in reproductive cells.
COVER Cheap, widely available, and easy to
use, the genome editing system called CRISPR earned Science's 2015 Breakthrough of the Year laurels for many great feats and some controversial ones — including the alteration of
DNA in human
embryos.
After Liu's initial report, a group in China
used DNA base editing to correct a disease - causing mutation in human
embryos cloned from a patient with a genetic blood disorder.
After two earlier published attempts that led to early - stage
embryos but not confirmed embryonic stem cells, Mitalipov and colleagues took steps to preserve a protein complex believed to help primate eggs restructure transplanted
DNA, and employed a new imaging system to observe the egg's chromosomes directly instead of by staining them or
using ultraviolet light, which might damage
DNA.
Since its development, lattice light - sheet microscopy has been
used to image numerous important events, such as single transcription factor molecules binding to
DNA, hotspots of transcription, microtubule instability, protein distributions in
embryos, and much more.
Until now, one of the only ways of screening eggs or
embryos for aneuploidy was to
use a technique called fluorescence in - situ hybridisation (FISH), in which specific chromosomes are stained with small pieces of fluorescent
DNA to...
Debate about so - called germline editing of eggs, sperm and
embryos has been going on for decades, but it has come to a head in recent years with the development of a powerful new gene - editing technology called Crispr - Cas9 that can make extremely precise edits to
DNA and which was
used by the Chinese team and would be
used by the British team.
In 2015, Chinese scientists even attempted to
use the technology on nonviable human
embryos but in only a few cases did CRISPR make the right cuts to the
DNA [source: Maxmen].
Researcher Kathy Krentz
uses a microscope and micro-needle to inject
DNA into an
embryo at the UW — Madison Biotechnology Center.
Chinese scientists triggered an international uproar earlier last year when they tried to edit the
DNA of human
embryos even though they
used only defective
embryos that had no hope of developing.
There seemed to be general agreement that the safety concerns make it far too early to try to make a baby
using eggs,
embryos or sperm with edited
DNA.
Scientists discovered that when this occurs, a
DNA repair process employed within human
embryos activates to fix the broken gene,
using the normal copy of the gene as a template.
Scientists have
used CRISPR, a method designed to precisely delete damaged
DNA from human
embryos.