ISTOCK, AWELSHLADScientists have used the gene-editing CRISPR-Cas9 system to suppress the gene encoding the protein OCT4 in experiments with human embryos. According to the results, published today (September 20) in Nature, OCT4 is essential for early embryonic development. OCT4 suppression impairs progress of the blastocyst, the ball of cells the embryo forms at about seven days, and also affects growth of the embryo’s other cell layers, the researchers found.
“Genome editing technologies—particularly CRISPR-Cas9 used in this study—are having a game-changing effect on our ability to understand the function of critical human genes,” Rob Buckle, chief science officer at Britain’s Medical Research Council, tells Reuters.
This is not the first time researchers have edited human genomes in embryos. This summer, researchers at Oregon Health and Science University fertilized eggs using sperm carrying a genetic defect, then deployed CRISPR to correct it, as The Scientist reported, following on 2015 work using CRISPR in embryos by a research team in China.
This latest experiment, led by researchers at London’s Francis Crick Institute, is the first in which scientists used genome-editing technology to investigate the function of a particular gene in human embryos, according to an institute release.
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