UK regulator approves human gene-editing technique

Kathy Niakan, a group leader at the Francis Crick Institute in London, will lead the research and use the CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing technique in healthy human embryos.

The researchers will only study the embryos during the initial seven days of a fertilised egg’s development that is from a single cell to about 250 cells.

The embryos, which will all donated from patients undergoing IVF treatments, are not allowed to survive past 14 days.

According to the researchers, the knowledge acquired from the study may enhance embryo development after in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and offer better clinical treatments for infertility, using conventional medical methods.

Crick director Paul Nurse said: "Dr Niakan’s proposed research is important for understanding how a healthy human embryo develops and will enhance our understanding of IVF success rates, by looking at the very earliest stage of human development – one to seven days."

The HFEA regulations state that any donated embryos must be used for research purposes only and cannot be utilized in treatment.

The genome editing research is subject ethical approval, after which the work will start within the next few months.

Last month, a consortium of pharmaceutical firms and UK universities has launched a new £40m Apollo Therapeutics Fund for early drug research.

AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, and Johnson & Johnson Innovation will provide funding and expertise to the collaboration with Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge and University College London.