In China, the first genome to have been edited babies to the world. By Gene Editing using CRISPR/Cas9, the children should be protected from HIV. The Heidelberg biologist Jan Korbel criticized the attempt.
Deutsche Welle: How realistic is the message from China?
Jan Korbel: The human genome can already be for some time. Regulations in Europe, however, these experiments are not carried out.
Currently important fundamental information about the context in which the Experiment has taken place are missing. There is no publication in the Form of a Paper, and thus no Peer review. Thus, concerns about the scientific quality of the work be awakened. No reliable data have been published.
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Jan Korbel
What are the risks in the case of genome Editing with CRISPR/Cas9?
The CRISPR/Cas9 method is a precise technique in the chosen target area, but genetic changes outside this range can not be excluded.
What are the chances of CRISPR/Cas9?
Opportunities there are, for example, in the basic research. Virtually anywhere in the genome, researchers can make changes. So the genetic material targeted can be studied than was previously possible.
Quite promising application possibilities are in the field of applied research, for example, in the production of industrially important bacteria – for example, in the dairy or wine industry, as well as in the breeding of crops. Also in the biomedical field, the CRISPR/Cas9 method will certainly play an important role.
In the genome of the two girls, the molecular entrance gate was removed by the HI-virus people can infect. What does this mean?
Here is is trying to a naturally occurring Mutation in a particular Receptor is missing. The affected people can develop AIDS. Apart from the fact that such an intervention in Europe would be entirely illegal, there are in addition no documentation about other effects of the introduced changes.
This procedure is not only ethically wrong, but also very risky. This will attempt to prevent an infectious disease with a novel, high-risk method, although it is a means of protection – for example, the use of condoms.
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Microinjection of fish embryos using CRISPR/Cas9
How great is the danger that, through such engagement, also other important genomes are removed or perhaps damaged?
Even if genetic changes outside the target area are expected to be only minimal, it is currently impossible long-term consequences to assess.
Since in the present case, with the “Genschere” brought change in many cells appears at the same time, and even to vary from cell to cell might be, the consequences are even more opaque. In Germany and Europe, Gene Editing is in the germline, therefore, illegal.
Jan O. Korbel is in the fields of computer, biology, human genetics and genomics. He is group leader and Senior Scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.