China has been experimenting with modifying the human genome in human embryos for some time using a 5-yer-old technology known as CRISPR. Now the United States has begun to edit the genome of human embryos too in a controversial race to tinker with human DNA.
The MIT Technology Review published a news report about the first-known experiment to create genetically modified human embryos in the United States using CRISPR, a gene-editing tool. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, director of the Oregon Health & Science University’s Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy, reportedly led the new research. Mitalipov and the university would not confirm details of the research. “Results of the peer-reviewed study are expected to be published soon in a scientific journal. No further information will be provided before then,” said the University’s press office.
In 2013, Mitalipov and his colleagues reported the first success in cloning human stem cells, reprogramming human skin cells back to their embryonic state. In 2007, a research team led by Mitalipov announced they created the first cloned monkey embryo and extracted stem cells from it.
The MIT Technology Review said the researchers in Portland, Oregon, edited the DNA of a large number of one-cell embryos, specifically targeting genes associated with inherited diseases in those embryos. “I’m not surprised that they were looking at genetic diseases to try and see if they could target them, because that’s exactly where I think the future inevitably leads,” said Arthur Caplan, a professor and founding head of the division of bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center, who was not involved in the research.
While this is not the first time CRISPR has been used on human embryos. It is the first time it has been done in the USA. “This is pushing the research faster than I thought we would see,” said Dana Carroll, professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah and another CRISPR researcher that was not involved in the new research.
CRISPR is an acronym for clustered, regularly interspaced, short Palindromic Repeats. It allows scientists to cut and edit small pieces of DNA at precise areas along a DNA strand, essentially modifying DNA. After testing CRISPR on microbes, then non-human mammals and primates, they began work on human embryos in 2015.
Part of the controversy about CRISPR stems from concern that the changes CRISPR makes in DNA can be passed down to the offspring of those embryos later in life, from generation to generation. Down the line, that could possibly impact the genetic makeup of humans in erratic ways. There are also concerns about mutations and whether gene editing would lead to eugenics and editing of embryos to develop “designer babies.”
“I hope the applications will be for the treatment of serious diseases and in cases where a sensible alternative is not available…” said Carroll.
There are three categories of research: basic research, treating living people, and making changes that will pass down from generation to generation. The new research is “basic research.” Though scientists are a long way from category two (treating living people), the scientific freight train will gain momentum.
Other studies have been conducted, as well. For instance, scientists at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York used the technology to genetically engineer immune cells to target and kill tumor cells in mice.
“There are what are called point mutations where you can go in and fix one genetic error. The simpler the genetic error, the easier it might be to try to repair it using a CRISPR gene-insertion technique,” Caplan said about genetic diseases.
Meanwhile, scientists, for the first time, have grown an embryo that is part-pig, part-human. The experiment involves injecting human stem cells into the embryo of a pig, then implanting the embryo in the uterus of a sow and allowing it to grow. After four weeks, the stem cells had developed into the precursors of various tissue types, including heart, liver and neurons, and a small fraction of the developing pig was made up of human cells.
The human-pig hybrid is the most successful human-animal chimera and a significant step toward the development of animal embryos with functioning human organs.
Another study showed that organs for transplant can be grown in chimera embryos that are part-mouse, part-rat – two similar types of mammals. Researchers hope that one-day doctors may be able to grow human tissue using chimera embryos in farm animals, making organs available for sick humans who might otherwise wait years for a transplant.
The rat study showed that interspecies organ transplants are not only possible, but they can be done effectively and safely, said Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a stem cell researcher at Stanford University and the University of Tokyo who is the senior author of the study. “This is a form of transplantation we could do in the clinic with human patients someday,” he said. “Many people think this is a kind of science fiction story. But this is becoming reality.”
The Bible predicts that in the last days, genetic engineering would be restored similar to the time before the flood. While amalgamation is the combining of two unrelated elements, if conducted in animals and/or humans it would require a considerable amount of gene editing. Interspecies transplants and intra-species genome manipulation has spiritual consequences.
“But if there was one sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God, and caused confusion everywhere.” Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 3, page 64.
“As it was in the days of Noah …” Luke 17:26.
Source References
Report: Scientists edit human embryos for first time in US