BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

The other side of the Rubicon

Embryo study’s success is shifting the topic from ethics to efficacy

August 3, 2017 11:24 PM UTC

In the end, it might be the efficacy that guides the ethics. By showing that editing of human embryos using CRISPR can be performed efficiently and without leading to the much-feared slew of off-target cuts, a team at Oregon Health & Science University has changed the conversation around germline gene editing from whether it should ever be allowed to where to start and how to do it safely.

What’s clear is that by conducting a well-designed and highly regarded study, the researchers have moved the field beyond a point of no return, and a wave of new experiments across the scientific community is likely to follow...