Lab tests show risks of using CRISPR gene editing on embryos A lab experiment aimed at fixing defective DNA in human embryos shows what can go wrong with this type of gene editing and why leading scientists say it’s too unsafe to tryA lab experiment aimed at fixing defective DNA in human embryos shows what can go wrong with this type of gene editing and why leading scientists say it’s too unsafe to try. Researchers made 40 embryos with eggs from healthy donors and sperm from a man with a gene mutation -- a single letter missing in the DNA alphabet -- that causes blindness. Editing was aimed at adding the missing letter so the gene would work. In some embryos, the editing was tried at fertilization, thought to be the best time for such attempts. The new work suggests that gene editing might hold promise for correcting disorders caused by an extra copy of a chromosome, such as Down syndrome.

Source: ABC News October 29, 2020 15:11 UTC