A committee in Washington DC recently issued a report on human gene editing, making recommendations on scientific, ethical and governance issues associated with basic laboratory research and somatic and germline (heritable) genome editing.

In December 2015, the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Medicine, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the UK’s Royal Society co-hosted an International Summit on Human Gene Editing to discuss a variety of issues concerning technological aspects of human gene editing and its application. Under the plans adopted at the meeting, the US academies then set up the Committee on Human Gene Editing: Scientific, Medical and Ethical Considerations. Fourteen months after its founding, the committee officially released its report.

Most of the committee’s 22 members were from the US, with the others coming from the UK, France, Italy, Canada, Israel and China. Pei Duanqing, a researcher at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health under CAS, was the only Chinese expert on the committee and contributed to the recommendations.

According to Pei, the International Summit on Human Gene Editing in December 2015 included fruitful discussions of the ethical issues arising from China’s research of human gene editing, which fully affirmed its ethical integrity. He said the latest report, which provides a systematic and principled framework for further development and application of human gene editing technology, will have positive effects on future research in this field.

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The report, titled "Human Gene Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance," suggests using "existing regulatory processes to oversee human genome editing laboratory research."

Its proposals for somatic genome editing include limiting "clinical trials or therapies to treatment and prevention of disease or disability at this time," and evaluating "safety and efficacy in the context of risks and benefits of intended use."

For germline genome editing, it suggests permitting "clinical research trials only for compelling purposes of treating or preventing serious disease or disabilities, and only if there is a stringent oversight system able to limit uses to specified criteria."

The report also proposes overarching principles for research on and clinical applications of human gene editing, including transparency, fairness and transnational cooperation.

Source: cas.cn