Reengineering Life
New Evidence Shows Editing Human Embryos Wreaks Havoc on DNA
Three papers suggest it might not be safe to make gene-edited babies with CRISPR
Reengineering Life is a series from OneZero about the astonishing ways genetic technology is changing humanity and the world around us.
A few weeks ago, OneZero reported new findings from a group of U.K. scientists showing that the gene-editing tool CRISPR could cause unintended DNA damage when used in human embryos. The results raised serious concerns about the safety of creating gene-edited babies.
Now there’s even more evidence that CRISPR can cause unwanted genetic mutations in embryos. After our story was published on June 16, two U.S. groups uploaded papers with similar findings to the preprint server bioRxiv. The three papers have not yet been peer-reviewed, but together, they suggest that CRISPR isn’t yet safe enough to be used in human embryos in order to prevent genetic diseases.
“This isn’t even a stop sign at this point, this is a biohazard sign the size of a football field in front of embryo editing,” says Fyodor Urnov, a gene-editing expert and professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in any of the…
