DNA Gene Editing in Embryos

Researchers with Oregon's OHSU Center for embryonic cell and gene therapy, have found a way to use gene editing in embryos to mitigate the passage of inherited diseases.

A release about the achievement notes from OHSU state, “the new technique uses the gene editing tool CRISPR to target a mutation in nuclear DNA that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathy a common genetic heart disease that can cause sudden cardiac death and heart failure”. The news statement continues, “the research demonstrates a new method of repairing a disease-causing mutation and preventing it from being inherited by succeeding generations. This is the first time scientists have successfully tested the method on donated clinical-quality human eggs.”

Shoukhrat Mitalipov, director of the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at Oregon Health and Science University

“Every generation on would carry this repair because we’ve removed the disease-casing gene variant from that family’s lineage.”

The newly developed technique is designed to work in concert with an invitro fertilization and could also increase the success of IVF by increasing the number of healthy embryos.
While the team is eager to move to clinical trials, it says it must first further optimize the genome editing approaches.

Content Sources:
New York Times
Baltimore Sun
www.nature.com
ohsu edu

Images Sources:
Embryo Microscope
Diagram
Shoukhrat Mitalipov