No designer babies, but gene summit calls for cautious research

A tool to edit human genes is nowhere near ready to use for pregnancy— but altering early embryos as part of careful laboratory research should be allowed as scientists and society continue to grapple with the ethical questions surrounding this revolutionary technology, organizers of an international summit concluded Thursday.

"It would be irresponsible" to edit human sperm, eggs or early embryos in a way that leads to pregnancy, said Nobel laureate David Baltimore of the California Institute of Technology, who chaired the summit.

Tools to precisely edit genes inside living cells, especially a cheap and easy-to-use one called CRISP-Cas9, are transforming biology - and potential treatments created by them promise to do such things as cure sickle-cell anemia or fight HIV and cancer.

But depending on how it's used, it also could alter human heredity - maybe create "designer babies" - raising ethical questions that triggered three days of debate by scientists, policymakers and ethicists from 20 countries. This so-called germline editing - manipulating sperm, eggs or early embryos - wouldn't affect just one sick person but his or her descendants.

The question gained urgency after Chinese researchers made the first attempt to alter genes in human embryos, an experiment that showed scientists don't yet know how to do that safely and effectively.

The summit's organizers endorsed treatment-related gene editing research, and said lab research on germline issues "is clearly needed and should proceed" with appropriate oversight as international debate continues.

The panel offered what geneticist Eric Lander of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard called "a framework for deciding if and when" the reproductive use of gene editing ever moves forward.

"As scientific knowledge advances and societal views evolve, the clinical use of germline editing should be revisited on a regular basis," the committee concluded. It urged the sponsors of this week's summit - the scientific academies of the U.S., Britain and China - to create an international forum to help "establish norms concerning acceptable uses of human germline editing."

Here are some takeaways from the high-profile summit:

REAL-WORLD USE OF ANY KIND IS YEARS AWAY

First-step testing of an initial gene editing therapy, using older tools, has begun in people.

Sangamo Biosciences is developing an HIV treatment - pulling immune cells from patients' blood, editing a gene that boosts resistance to the virus, and returning those cells. So far, 80 HIV patients have received the therapy in first-stage testing, with good results so far, said Sangamo senior scientist Fyodor Urnov.

Next year, Sangamo plans a clinical trial that takes a next step and injects a gene editing tool directly into the body, an attempt to target hemophilia B, a blood disorder.

"We're at the beginning of this story now," cautioned Dr. Adrian Thrasher of University College London, where researchers recently treated a 1-year-old leukemia patient with edited immune cells. "What we'll see over the next five years or so is increasing clinical trials."

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/12/04/no-designer-babies-but-gene-summit-calls-for-cautious-research.html