Scientists want to change the DNA of embryos

English researchers asked to be permitted at the gene level to change the embryos inhabitant of our planet-scale scientific experiment. This study will help solve the problem of miscarriages.

A worker from the UK University Francis Crick Katie Niakan filed a petition for a license that permits modification of the human embryo, tells The Guardian. A similar experiment English scientists decided to conduct after their Chinese colleagues announced that they had changed the composition of the DNA in embryos inhabitant of our planet. The experience will involve embryos acquired with IVF, they will be used exclusively for basic research. Germ study will last no more than 2 weeks. With all this, professionals assume that this experience in academia can be called unethical.

But the configuration of the genome will help to shed light on the issue of abortion. "The knowledge we could obtain, important for understanding how to develop a healthy human embryo, and with it we will understand the causes of miscarriages," said Yakan.

If permission is received, according to the laws of England, the embryos must be destroyed within 14 days after the experience. In early April of 2015 Chinese scientists formally confirmed the information that they did experiments on the genome of human embryos.

Head of the research group Cunizza Juan from sun Yat-sen University told about what took for experiments non-viable embryos obtained from local hospitals family planning.

The researchers wanted, using the famous method of genome editing CRISPR/Cas9 to correct the DNA of a gene responsible for a serious blood disease. As demonstrated by the results of the experiments, this method changes the genetic structure of cells cannot be applied in medicine.

sections: Society, World News