The DNA double helix.
Credit: AFP PHOTO

UK scientists have applied for permission to genetically modify human embryos for the first time as part of research into the earliest stage of human development.

Stem cell scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in London have asked the government’s fertility regulator for a license to perform controversial genome editing on human embryos.

Researchers hope the experiments will help scientists to learn more about genes in the first few days of human fertilization.

Chinese researchers became the first researchers in the world to announce they had altered the DNA of human embryos in April.

The news prompted a fresh debate over the ethics of cheap and simple new genetic techniques, dubbed genome editing, which enable scientists to modify human genes.

Scientist Kathy Niakan wants to use embryos donated by couples with a surplus after IVF treatment for the research, which she hopes will shed light on why some women lose their babies.

Embryos cannot be studied for more than two […]

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