First Genetically Modified Human Embryos Created by Chinese Scientists, Experiment Receives Backlash for Being Unethical

A group of Chinese scientists have been reportedly performing modification experiment on human embryos. The technique they used raised concerns from international ethicists and genetic researchers.

The practice used by the Chinese researchers could permanently alter the DNA of cells and these changes could be passed on to many generations.

There have been "persistent rumors of this kind of research" taking place in China, according to Edward Lanphier, chief executive of Sangamo BioSciences Inc., via Daily Mail UK. "This paper takes it out of the hypothetical and into the real."

The altering technique, called CRISPR/Cas9, involves using enzymes to find and replace a mutation linked to a certain disease. The Chinese study was published online last April 18 in a journal called Protein & Cell and has ignited an ethical debate last month about the procedure.

There have been warnings from other scientists that the alteration of the DNA in human eggs, embryos, or sperms have unknown implications and could cause harm since the changes are passed on from generation to generation.

"It is too soon to apply these technologies to the human germ line, the inherited DNA, in a clinical setting," according to biologist Rudolf Jaenisch, president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, via UK Daily Mail. Jaenissch asked why preventing diseases should involve the altering of human embryos since editing these genes present ethical problems. There are many questions surrounding gene editing.

He added that it is not acceptable "to mutate normal embryos" and that for him, that means "there is no application," he told the NY Times.

The research was led by Junjiu Huang of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. The team allegedly used "defective" human embryos that cannot result in live births and were obtained from fertility clinics. Their target gene is called HBB, a blood disease that causes β-thalassaemia using the editing technique known as CRISPR/Cas9, according to Nature.

The experiments yielded many possible things that could go wrong with the editing technique. Many embryo specimens did not survive and the others that did survive had other genes altered instead of the HBB gene. Other embryos also had unintended mutations. Even the successfully edited genes had problems.

"If you want to do it in normal embryos, you need to be close to 100 percent," Huang told Nature. "That's why we stopped. We still think it's too immature."

"It shows how immature the science is," said David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate molecular biologist. "We have learned a lot from their attempts, mainly about what can go wrong."

"Their study should give pause to any practitioner who thinks the technology is ready for testing to eradicate disease genes during I.V.F," stem cell researcher and Harvard Dr. George Q. Daley told the New York Times. "This is an unsafe procedure and should not be practiced at this time, and perhaps never."