At the end of November 2018, Chinese geneticist He Jiankui declared he implanted embryos, that had been genetically modified with the CRISPR-Cas9 technique (Ran et al., 2013; Doudna and Charpentier, 2014), into two women. This announcement has aroused many comments and controversy both in public opinion and in the scientific community (e.g., Colata et al., 2018; Cyranoski and Ledford, 2018; Chadwick, 2019). As far as we know, this is the first time that a modification of the germline has been artificially and deliberately induced in two human beings, excluding mitochondrial replacement therapy (which is, however, aimed at preventing a specific type of genetic pathologies and does not allow for broad-spectrum interventions such as CRISPR-Cas9). In this case, He disabled a gene—CCR5—which is believed to play a role in allowing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to infect the cells.
Parental Selective Reproduction: Genome-Editing and Maternal Behavior as a Potential Concern
LAVAZZA A
2019-01-01
Abstract
At the end of November 2018, Chinese geneticist He Jiankui declared he implanted embryos, that had been genetically modified with the CRISPR-Cas9 technique (Ran et al., 2013; Doudna and Charpentier, 2014), into two women. This announcement has aroused many comments and controversy both in public opinion and in the scientific community (e.g., Colata et al., 2018; Cyranoski and Ledford, 2018; Chadwick, 2019). As far as we know, this is the first time that a modification of the germline has been artificially and deliberately induced in two human beings, excluding mitochondrial replacement therapy (which is, however, aimed at preventing a specific type of genetic pathologies and does not allow for broad-spectrum interventions such as CRISPR-Cas9). In this case, He disabled a gene—CCR5—which is believed to play a role in allowing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to infect the cells.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
