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When Chinese researchers reported using a technique called CRISPR/Cas9 to edit the genome of human embryos this past April, they sparked a worldwide debate over how this technology could (or should) be used. Scientists expressed legitimate fears: What are the side effects? Will this open the floodgates to designer humans?
The world’s foremost geneticists, biotechnologists, and bioethicists gathered in Washington, D.C., in December to address those questions and map the future of human-gene editing.
CRISPR isn’t the first genome-editing tool, but it is by far the best. Prior to its discovery in 2013, scientists relied on two methods—zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) and TALENS—to splice DNA at a specific location. With CRISPR, scientists can make precise changes much more rapidly, a capability that promises to halt certain diseases and revolutionize the treatment of others.
“CRISPR’s potential to treat human diseases is very high, but so is its potential damage.”
—Gang Bao, bioengineer at Rice University
Sickle cell anemia, for example, is caused by a single mutation in the beta globin gene. Gang Bao, a bioengineer at Rice University, is...