Skip to Content
Biotechnology and health

Turns out CRISPR editing can also vandalize genomes

In a blow to the gene-editing super-tool CRISPR, scientists have found that it causes big, dangerous-looking changes to DNA in mouse and human cells.

What happened: A team at the Wellcome Sanger Center in the UK described how CRISPR can lead to massive genetic typos—big chunks of DNA getting deleted, reversed, or moved entirely.

Is that bad? Yes. The team says if CRISPR is used in a gene therapy to edit billions of cells, bad results are “likely.” “The multitude of different mutations generated makes it likely that one or more edited cells in each protocol would be endowed with an important pathogenic lesion,” according to geneticist Allan Bradley, who headed the study, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

The risk: The danger is that unplanned DNA alterations could start turning cells cancerous. That could throw a wrench into plans to use CRISPR to treat inherited illnesses like hemophilia—and it makes “designer babies” seem less likely than ever.

Still in the toolbox: Startups working on CRISPR cures dismissed the findings as irrelevant. A spokesperson for Editas Medicine, a startup developing a CRISPR treatment for a rare eye disease, told Stat that the problems are not “specifically problematic in our work to make CRISPR-based medicines.” Tom Barnes, a senior vice president at Intellia Therapeutics, told Genetic Engineering News that the new paper is “a little bit alarmist” and said his company had “been thinking about this topic all along.”

Deep Dive

Biotechnology and health

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

An AI-driven “factory of drugs” claims to have hit a big milestone

Insilico is part of a wave of companies betting on AI as the "next amazing revolution" in biology

How scientists traced a mysterious covid case back to six toilets

When wastewater surveillance turns into a hunt for a single infected individual, the ethics get tricky.

The next generation of mRNA vaccines is on its way

Adding a photocopier gene to mRNA vaccines could make them last longer and curb side effects.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.