New Advances in Gene Editing of Human Embryos

The technology to “fix” genetic defects in embryos is fast developing. Christians need to be informed.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://biologos.org/blogs/guest/new-advances-in-gene-editing-of-human-embryos

@Gary
@Mervin_Bitikofer
@pevaquark
@cwhenderson
@Argon
@Mike_Gantt

Given your interest in the thread a few weeks ago on CRISPR technology, I thought you all might want to check out @DarrelFalk 's latest blog post.

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Thanks, Christy. I checked this out earlier today. I was sharing some of the recent reports with my summer Genetics class. This is something today’s students will almost assuredly be confronting in their future careers.

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I don’t see this technique as necessarily eliminating the need to screen more than one embryo. You’ll want the egg to continue multiple divisions (at least into the blastocyst stage) so that you can sample some cells to determine if the alterations worked properly. Only after that would you go through with implantation.

Also, for efficiency, I think you’d want to run the DNA editing procedure against a number of fertilized eggs to ensure that enough are generated for implantation. With in vitro fertilization, typically two or more are implanted into the mother.

Still, the least expensive means of eliminating genetic defects is for the affected individual(s) to not contribute their sperm or eggs.

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A nice summary of things to date here (YouTube).

Thanks, Argon! Hank makes some great videos, but I was only familiar with what he made for Crash Course, Excited to see what else he has on SciShow!