Deafness edited out of human eggs by Russian researcher. No plans for gene-edited babies—yet

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Geneticist Denis Rebrikov in his lab. Image: Sergey Ponomarev

Russian biologist Denis Rebrikov has started editing the GJB2 gene, associated with deafness, in human eggs donated by women who can hear, according to Nature. Rebrikov, a researcher at Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University in Moscow, does not plan to create gene-edited babies just yet. He is studying normal copies of GJB2 to better understand potentially harmful mutations associated with using CRISPR. But his eventual goal is to edit the eggs of deaf women in order to allow deaf couples with GJB2 mutations to have children with functioning copies of the gene and typical hearing. He plans on publishing his work “soon,” reports Nature.

The experiment is similar to work done by researcher He Jiankui.

Sergey Kutsev, the chief geneticist of the Russian Ministry of Health and the chairman of its ethics committee, says that the research is unethical because there are still so many unanswered questions about its effects, reports Bloomberg. “While [Jiankui] worked in secret and was held personally liable for what he did, Rebrikov is declaring his intentions to the world. He’s making all of us responsible to humanity,” Kutsev tells Bloomberg.

Read full, original post: Deafness Gene GJB2 Edited in Human Eggs

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