Scientists have created synthetic human embryos using stem cells, sidestepping the need for eggs or sperm. The model embryos resemble those in the earliest stages of human development, snd do not have a beating heart or the beginnings of a brain. Embryos may only be cultivated for up to 14 days in a lab.
The doctor behind the technology that helped birth one of the world’s first 3-parent babies has been told by the FDA that he must stop marketing the experimental procedure.
According to the agency, John Zhang, a New York fertility doctor who helped a Jordanian couple give birth to a baby boy in 2016, had promised the FDA his companies wouldn’t use the technology in the U.S. without the agency’s permission, but they continued to promote it.
The UK’s fertility regulator has given approval for the “cautious use” of techniques to create a baby using the DNA of 3 people. [1]
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) announced its “historic” decision December 15 and said that it would begin accepting applications from fertility clinics that wish to become licensed to perform the procedure. The HFEA said 3-parent baby technique, as it is commonly called, will help prevent a small number of children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases from their mothers. [2]
For the first time in history, a human has been injected with genes edited using the CRISPR-Cas9 method. [1]
The experiment took place on 28 October 2016, when a team of Chinese scientists, led by oncologist Lu You at Sichuan University in Chengdu, delivered the genetically modified (GM) cells into a patient with aggressive lung cancer as part of a clinical trial at the West China Hospital in Chengdu. [2]
To protect the patient’s privacy, the details of the trial have not been released; but Lu said the trial “went smoothly.”
The birth of baby mice made from eggs grown in a lab has sparked an ethical debate over whether the technique should ever be offered for humans by fertility clinics.
The experiment is a step up (or down, depending on how you look at it) from creating human organs from stem cells, which scientists at the University of Edinburgh successfully did for the first time in 2014.
In the U.S., 77,500 people are on the organ transplant waiting list. Every 10 minutes, someone is added to that list. On average, 22 people die each day awaiting a transplant. The numbers certainly are discouraging. To try and tackle the problem, scientists at UC Davis have developed embryos that are part human and part pig, and are implanting them in sows. [1] [2]
Scientists in Britain have recently been given the green light to edit the genes of human embryos for research, leading to fears the practice could lead to “designer babies.”
Chinese scientists set off a firestorm of controversy a year ago when they announced they had begun genetically modifying human embryos. Now, British researcher Kathy Niakan, from London’s Francis Crick Institute has a received a license to carry out similar experiments.
Chinese scientists say they won’t be cloning humans anytime in the immediate future. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen ever, and it doesn’t mean they don’t want to clone animals like cattle.
‘Proceed with caution, but steer clear of creating GMO babies’ was the general message sent Thursday by the dozen scientists and ethicists who organized the International Summit on Human Gene Editing in Washington, D.C.
The experts said at the end of 3 days of deliberation and presentations that not all gene therapy should move forward, and the world is not ready for “germline” editing that permanently changes an embryo so that the edit could be passed along to future children.
