The British government allowed testing of genetic engineering on human embryos

The decision of the British government and HFEA was enthusiastically responded by the scientists in the country, who considered it a great victory of science.

Scientists in the UK have been "green lighted" for testing CRISPR gene editing techniques on human embryos. This decision by the British government allowed researchers to perform pre-embryonic genetic modification and to monitor the development of embryos during 7 days. This is one of the efforts to limit the risk of miscarriage, which will test with 30 different embryos at Francis Crick Research Institute in London.

Specifically, the entire research process will be supervised by the Administration of Artificial Embryos (HFEA), which performs all tasks related to artificial insemination in humans. The British government representative also added that the approval of the study will still need confirmation from a committee discussing ethics - the committee is expected to meet and notify the decision. their plan in March is coming. After that, scientists can carry out their work within 7 until the embryo grows to 250 cells. In addition, the research team is not allowed to make any edits to the embryos that will be implanted in other women.

The lead author of this study, Dr. Kathy Niakan, said she was interested in understanding the human embryonic development process depending on which genes and genetic causes lead to impotence. birth, miscarriage in women.

According to HFEA estimates, 100 fertilized eggs will have about one-half not reached the pre-embryonic development stage and only about 25 artificial embryos will then be eligible for implantation.

Scientists in the UK have been "green lighted" for testing CRISPR gene editing techniques on human embryos.

Since then, scientists have begun to question whether genetic mutations affect embryo formation. Dr. Niakan also added that she and her colleagues discovered a gene code related to embryo development called OCT4 . By means of the CRISPR gene, Kathy can conduct a test to remove it from the genetic structure or simply find a plan to turn it on and off when necessary.

The decision of the British government and HFEA was enthusiastically responded by the scientists in the country, who considered it a great victory of science. For example, University of Kent geneticist Professor Darren Griffin said: "The ethical issues that many people refer to will gradually be covered by irreplaceable benefits from genetic modification techniques. Kathy's research will be the end of many women in the UK and around the world in restricting genetic causes that cause an unfortunate miscarriage, especially for those with you follow the way of artificial insemination ".

CRISPR - short for Clustered Regularly InterSpaced Palindromic Repeats - is a popular genetic modification method using bacterial proteins to cut DNA , in which a protein called Cas9 is used by many biological and genetic experts. erase, alter, or even add DNA to basic genetic biological systems within living organisms, from yeast to humans.

It along with the same types of tools can be used to control embryonic DNA, helping to understand the earliest stages of human development. In theory, genetic modification technology is used to "repair" mutations that cause genetic diseases in humans. If done on the embryo, this technology could prevent those diseases from inheriting to the next generation.

However, there are still many people who disagree with this decision of the heads of the National Island of Mist. In addition to moral issues, many experts believe that genetic modifications at the embryo level will likely leave many unbelievable sequelaes to the next generation and this is an unacceptable action .