MYBPC3: Editing the Human Germline
So, last week it was published. For some the breakthrough, for others the breaking of taboos. Researchers around the controversial stem cell guru Shoukhrat Mitalipov have “CRISPRed” out a serious hereditary disease from human embryos. Hopefully most of my readers know by now that CRISPR are those amazing “gene scissors” that can be designed in such a way that they can create a DNA double-strand break at (almost) any point in the genome. If, at the same time as this, CRISPR is programmed against a certain defective gene, a “healthy” variant of this gene is introduced into a cell, there is a high chance that this cell will replace the disease-causing gene with the correct variant. And if this cell is now a fertilized egg cell, then all the offspring of this cell and with it the entire organism will carry the repaired gene version. … Read more
