Stem Cell Rules Tackle Human Embryo Editing

A set of international stem cell guidelines recommends that oversight committees at research institutions oversee all research on embryos.

Written byBob Grant

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WIKIMEDIA, NISSIM BENVENISTYThe International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) released an update last week (May 12) to its guidelines, calling for research institutions to construct oversight committees to handle stem cell and embryo research conducted by their scientists. The move appears to be an attempt to get out in front of federal regulations that may restrict or complicate genome editing in human embryos.

“Self-regulation is the best form of regulation,” Charles Murry, a bioengineer at the University of Washington in Seattle and a member of the committee that updated the guidelines, told Nature. “The biomedical community is best poised to strike the balance between rapid progress and safe, ethical research practice.”

The ISSCR has previously revised its stem cell research guidelines, but the latest update is the first to include all science involving human embryos, including the hot field of precision genome editing. The authors of the latest guidelines apply some of the same review procedures to genome editing in human embryos as it suggests for research that use human embryos to create stem cell lines for studies.

The new guidelines also include a section on the effective ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
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From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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