Scientists from the UK have the right to edit the human embryo genome

A team of scientists from the UK received the right to edit the human embryo genome. The group in question works at the Francis Crick Institute in London. The purpose of their work is to study the characteristics of the early stages of human life.

Scientists plan to work with fertilized eggs, studying how they develop in the first seven days - from one cell to a blatocyst, consisting of 250 cells. Editing the genome, researchers want to get new data about our DNA and the factors leading to the emergence of a healthy embryo. This information, scientists hope, can help in obtaining healthy embryos during IVF , as well as improve ways to cure infertility.

The Department of Human Fertility and Embryology Authority ( HFEA ) approved the application of scientists. True, the approval of the “ethical committee” is still required. The application was filed by Dr. Kathy Niakan from the Francis Crick Institute in 2015. The team, led by Katie Nyakan, will use genetic material donated by patients who have already undergone IVF. It is allowed to edit the embryo genotype, but it is forbidden to put them back into the body of women. The duration of the experiments is a maximum of two weeks; embryos cannot be brought to the state of the fetus.
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Editing the genotype of living organisms, especially human embryos, is a rather delicate subject. Some specialists (as well as ordinary people) believe that this is a natural development of medical science, while their opponents are afraid of the future, where children are designed by order of their parents. Moreover, this is a lesser evil, scientists fear that the technology developed by someone aimed at changing the genotype of the embryo to get the specified parameters of the human body can fall into unkind hands.

Whatever it was, but the data obtained by scientists from the Francis Crick Institute, will be of great benefit to science. At the same time, the progress of the work is such that it is not planned to “cross the line” in terms of ethics.