Heart disease flaw removed from human embryos

An international team of scientists has successfully edited of the genes of a viable human embryo, correcting a mutation that can cause the heart condition hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and South Korea's Institute for Basic Science used a gene-editing tool known as Crispr-Cas9 to create healthy embryos.

The breakthrough "potentially opens the door to preventing 10,000 disorders that are passed down the generations", says the BBC.

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"Gene correction would rescue mutant embryos, increase the number of embryos available for transfer and ultimately improve pregnancy rates," the scientists wrote in a report on their work.

While the result of the research marks a milestone in the treatment of hereditary disease, it also raises a number of ethical questions due to changes made to the human germ line – the genes of sperm, eggs or embryos.

"Scientists and bioethicists have called for caution in editing the germ-line because such changes wouldn't only alter the individual, but would be passed on to future generations," The Australian says.

More testing work remains to be done, reports The Guardian, "but even if it seems safe, scientists face major regulatory hurdles before clinical trials could start".

Such trials are highly unlikely to take place in either the US or the UK. The US Food and Drug Administration is banned from even considering human trials with edited embryos, while it is illegal in Britain to implant a modified embryo in a woman.