For the first time, scientists have used gene-editing techniques on human embryos to probe how they develop. The study is an important proof of principle; previous human embryo–editing research has focused instead on correcting faulty genes. The new experiments are also a first test of the United Kingdom9s carefully crafted embryo-editing research regulations, which require that researchers undergo a review by a government authority and receive a license before moving forward. Kathy Niakan, a developmental biologist at the Francis Crick Institute in London, applied in 2015 to use the CRISPR editing technique on human embryos to learn more about the genes active in early development. The researchers planned to focus first on OCT4, known as a marker for pluripotent stem cells—cells that can become all tissues in the body. Niakan9s group used CRISPR to "knock out," or deactivate, the gene that codes for OCT4 in 37 single-cell human embryos left over after in vitro fertilization treatments and donated by couples. In the human embryo knockouts, placental cells failed to form, indicating that OCT4 plays an earlier role in humans than it does in mouse embryos.

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胚胎编辑使人类“淘汰”

科学家们第一次在人类胚胎上使用基因编辑技术来探索它们是如何发育的。该研究是原理的重要证明；以前的人类胚胎编辑研究转而专注于纠正有缺陷的基因。新实验也是对英国精心制定的胚胎编辑研究法规的首次测试，该法规要求研究人员在继续之前接受政府当局的审查并获得许可。伦敦弗朗西斯·克里克研究所的发育生物学家凯西·尼亚坎 (Kathy Niakan) 于 2015 年申请在人类胚胎上使用 CRISPR 编辑技术，以了解有关早期发育中活跃基因的更多信息。研究人员计划首先关注 OCT4，OCT4 被称为多能干细胞的标志物——可以成为体内所有组织的细胞。Niakan9s 小组使用 CRISPR 来“敲除”或停用在体外受精治疗后留下并由夫妇捐赠的 37 个单细胞人类胚胎中编码 OCT4 的基因。在人类胚胎敲除中，胎盘细胞未能形成，表明 OCT4 在人类中比在小鼠胚胎中发挥更早的作用。