#crispr human

Science hype: award for worst CRISPR media headline of year

Science hype is one of the more troublesome issues in our field today especially at its interface with the media, and unfortunately a ‘great’ example of that came this past week in a headline from the Daily Mail on the new CRISPR of human embryos paper from Kathy Niakan’s group in the UK.

Although Niakan’s group was generally appropriately cautious in their new Naturepaper about potential…

Mulling over that Mitalipov human embryo CRISPR pub, still many questions

Modified open Wikimedia image to symbolize an 8-cell CRISPR’d human embryo

What really happened at the DNA level in the experiments in that high-profile CRISPR of human embryos paper from a team led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov at OHSU?

Is the team right that they successfully conducted CRISPR of human embryos to correct a mutant gene, as they reported in their Ma, et al. Nature paper?

Or is the Egli,…

Who leaked Mitalipov CRISPR human embryo paper?

The new CRISPR human embryo paper from Shoukhrat Mitalipov is stirring things up, but then there’s also the murky back story as to how the news of this as yet unpublished paper got leaked in the first place. The actual paper is still not out and from what I understand hasn’t even been officially released by Nature in embargoed form to journalists. So what the heck happened?

Specific details of…

Paper on 1st use of CRISPR in normal human embryos: problems remain

The first report of the use of CRISPR gene editing in normal human embryos was published today as a short paper from a team in China. There have been rumors for over a year that more CRISPR human embryo papers were coming including some using normal embryos. Here’s one and we can now expect more even as there remain scientific and ethical discussions about this kind of work.

Figure 1b, Tang, et…

CRISPR Update: Patents, Embryos, & IPOs, oh my

It’s been a busy few weeks for the CRISPR arena so I’ve made a CRISPR Update. I’ve listed below links to some commentaries and key developments.

  Fun Video interview on Read Science! with Joanne Manaster on my new book on CRISPR in humans, GMO Sapiens.

CRISPR: Pursuit of profit poisons collaboration, Nature piece by Jacob Sherkow

HIV Fights Off CRISPR Gene-Editing Attack. HIV adapts when CRISPR…

Top 10 list of CRISPR predictions for New Year

CRISPR is the hottest new biotechnology and the top development of 2015 according to Science Magazine.

What will the new year of 2016 bring on the CRISPR front? It’s clear there will be more meetings on CRISPR ethics and policy (heck, we are having one right here at UC Davis on May 26), but what else is coming?

Below are my top 10 CRISPR predictions for the new year in no particular order. What…

Just freakin do it: patients voice impatience on CRISPR for genetic diseases

Both before and particularly now after the big human gene editing summit in Washington, D.C. at the National Academy of Sciences, I’ve talked with patients about their views on this new technology including at last week’s World Stem Cell Summit.

One of the most striking moments of the DC summit was when the mother of a pediatric patient made the comment after a talk about human gene editing that…