You are currently viewing the summary.
View Full TextLog in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
More options
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
Summary
This week, a U.S.-based team published the first rigorous demonstration that the gene-editing method CRISPR can efficiently repair a gene defect in human embryos. Although none of the labmade embryos were transferred into women, the research team, led by embryologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, says the success paves the way for using the technique in the clinic to prevent the transmission of genetic disease. But evidence of the technique's long-term safety is still lacking, and many researchers and ethicists have argued that germline editing—making permanent, heritable changes to the genome that could correct genetic disease, but also theoretically introduce other designer traits—should for now be limited to research exploring basic biology.
