Do China’s controversial CRISPR babies illustrate the need for an ‘undo button’?

The editing of the genomes of twin girls announced via YouTube in November 2018 using CRISPR/Cas9 set off alarm bells for the premature use of the controversial technology. But the protests may have been misplaced: it wasn't just the germline gene editing, but choice of the delivered gene – CCR5 – that might introduce risk. A new report in Nature Medicine indicates that the engineered mutation is associated with increased mortality.

 

 

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