embryos

2026 studies reignite the debate over embryo gene editing

In the summer of 2026, two studies — by Kathy Niakan's group in Cambridge and Dieter Egli's group at Columbia University — applied base editing to human embryos. The method is considered more precise and safer than classic CRISPR-Cas9, but mosaicism has not been reduced to zero, and ethical questions — the boundary between therapy and enhancement, consent, stigmatization — remain open. No country permits heritable changes.