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Feb 11, 2016

UK Will Use CRISPR on Human Embryos — a Step Closer to Human Genome Editing

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

This week, Kathy Niakan, a biologist working at the Francis Crick Institute in London received the green light from the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to use genome editing technique CRISPR/Cas9 on human embryos.

Niakan hopes to answer important questions about how healthy human embryos develop from a single cell to around 250 cells, in the first seven days after fertilization.

By removing certain genes during this early development phase using CRISPR/Cas9, Niakan and her team hope to understand what causes miscarriages and infertility, and in the future, possibly improve the effectiveness of in-vitro fertilization and provide better treatments for infertility.

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