The Generalitat of Catalonia has approved for the first time in Spain that a team from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) use the CRISPR gene editing tool with human embryos . Specifically, 40 embryos would be used to study the importance of some genes in embryonic development.
Since 2013, the CRISPR / Cas system has been used for gene editing (adding, interrupting, or changing the sequences of specific genes). Often compared to a kind of molecular scissors , this editing system sets itself apart from other tools for its precision, ensuring that slices are just where they need to be throughout the genome .
Safer pregnancies
These trials aim to find genetic markers that provide information on embryo viability, that is, what are the reasons why certain embryos do not thrive in the mothers’ womb . Beyond the fact that these findings could improve assisted reproductive techniques, the data will eventually allow for safer pregnancies overall.
In the United Kingdom, since 2016, this kind of research is already being carried out, such as a study published in Nature to show that the OCT4 gene has a different role than was suspected in embryonic development. If it has taken so many years for these investigations to begin in Spain, it is due to the bioethical dilemmas they entail . However, the embryos that will be used are those not implanted in assisted reproduction processes (which are generally eliminated), so that they would not violate the Oviedo Convention, which prohibits the creation of human embryos specifically for scientific research.
Thus, we are facing a pioneering project in Spain that will be coordinated by Anna Veiga , a pioneer in Spain of assisted reproduction techniques, Montse Boada and Ángel Raya . The human embryos that will be used in the project come from the in vitro fertilization Program of the Dexeus Dona Reproductive Medicine Service, altruistically donated for research by their parents.
Another novelty that will be carried out in this project is a method of observation of the embryos in which the time lapse technique will be used (photographs taken in equal periods of time that are subsequently reproduced sequentially at high speed), which will allow a continuous and real-time observation of the embryos, and consequently of their development .
CRISPR also has a history linked to Spain: one of the first indications of its operation and its possibilities took place in the salt flats of Santa Pola, Alicante. There, a microbiologist from the University of Alicante named Francisco Juan Martínez Mojica was studying archaea called Haloferax mediterranei , unicellular microorganisms similar to bacteria. After analyzing them to better understand how the microorganism was able to survive in those extreme conditions of salinity, he witnessed an elegant genome repair system . What he discovered is that some regions of it seemed to intersect depending on the salinity of the environment.
Several studies around this spectacular defense mechanism finally allowed a team of researchers led by Emmanuelle Charpentier , at the University of Umeå, and Jennifer Doudna , at the University of California at Berkeley, to publish a study in the journal Science. which demonstrated how this natural mechanism could be turned into an unprecedented genetic editing tool .
