Friday, April 24, 2015
BEIJING, CHINA (Agencies) .- For years, within the international scientific community ran hundreds of related experiments on human embryos made in China rumors. We now know that, at least in part, were real.
This is because it has just published a report of a Chinese experiment that managed to “edit” the genome of human embryos and replacing the gene responsible for beta-thalassemia, also known as Mediterranean anemia, a potentially fatal disease.
The experiment was a success thanks to a technique known as CRISPR (Short palindromic Repeated Aglomerados and regularly interspaced, for its acronym in English), which involves cutting parts of DNA, replacing them with other fragments.
The project leader, Dr. Huang Junjiu of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, said that in their experiment used 86 nonviable embryos that is, they can not produce a birth-from local fertility clinics . Nevertheless, this is the first time that the technique used in human embryos.
According to Huang, the experiment proves that is potentially viable eliminate genetic diseases before birth, but also change other features, such as intelligence or beauty.
This has opened up a debate about the scope of science in relation to the ethics of the Chinese experiment, and the use of modern techniques to confront the nature or the possibility that such tests bring more prejudiced than benefits, as a potential new product of genetic experimentation and negative effects on the offspring of modified probable human disease.
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