There is growing appetite in Silicon Valley for the legally murky and morally frowned upon practice of embryo-editing. This is how it would work: Companies would use existing gene-editing technology called Crispr to cut unwanted traits from the DNA of an embryo, sperm, or an egg. Two startups in particular have made headlines within the […]
When Will Genetically Modifying Our Children Go Mainstream?
In late May, several scientific organizations, including the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT), banded together to call for a 10-year moratorium on using CRISPR and related technologies to pursue human heritable germline editing. The declaration also outlined practical steps that countries and research institutions could take to discourage this sort of experimentation, […]
The FDA Just Approved the First CRISPR-Edited Pigs for Food
Who’s up for some CRISPR-y bacon? This week, the Food and Drug Administration approved gene-edited pigs developed by PIC, a biotechnology company specializing in livestock genetics, for human consumption. The FDA granted the approval Wednesday, allowing a specific gene edit to be used in commercially bred pigs. With the help of CRISPR—a powerful gene editing […]