In the short term it affirms the revolutionary principles of the gene editing technique known as Crispr – or, formally, Crispr-Cas9 . Crispr makes it possible to manipulate a genome in the way that we can alter the words in a word processor. Very small identifying stretches of DNA around a defective gene can be targeted and then deliberately broken. When the DNA is copied at the next cell division, only a functioning version of the gene is reproduced. Research using Crispr on embryos has been licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in this country already.

Source: The Guardian August 03, 2017 18:00 UTC