Chinese researchers have officially taken science into some uncomfortable territory. Researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou have edited the genomes of human embryos, Nature reported in an exclusive Wednesday. The study, which was published in the journal Protein & Cell, confirms rumors that some scientists were conducting these ethically dubious experiments. The report has scientists sounding a warning call, as reported in Nature:
"I believe this is the first report of CRISPR/Cas9 applied to human pre-implantation embryos and as such the study is a landmark, as well as a cautionary tale," says George Daley, a stem-cell biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Their study should be a stern warning to any practitioner who thinks the technology is ready for testing to eradicate disease gene."
In the study in question, researchers attempted to replace the gene responsible for a potentially fatal blood disorder called β-thalassaemia. They used a gene ...
