Scientists edit human embryos for first time in US

WASHINGTON — Scientists have genetically engineered human embryos for the first time in the United States, according to a report in MIT Technology Review magazine.

The effort, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health & Science University, involved changing the DNA of a large number of one-cell embryos with the gene-editing technique CRISPR, according to the report, released on Wednesday.

Ma Hong, a staff scientist at Mitalipov’s lab, said the team’s paper is about to be published and that, for the moment, she cannot reveal any information about the research.

“Although none of the embryos were allowed to develop for more than a few days — and there was never any intention of implanting them into a womb — the experiments are a milestone on what may prove to be an inevitable journey toward the birth of the first genetically modified humans,” said the report in MIT Technology Review, a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“To date, three previous reports of editing human embryos were all published by scientists in China,” it said.

Scientists such as Mitalipov believe they can eradicate or correct genes that cause inherited disease and even cancer by altering the DNA of human embryos.

According to the report, the earlier Chinese publications had found CRISPR caused editing errors that lent weight to arguments that the technique “would be an unsafe way to create a person”.