Scientists create human chromosome

Scientists have created genetically-engineered mice with artificial human chromosomes in every cell of their bodies, as part of a series of studies showing that it may be possible to treat genetic diseases with a radically new form of gene therapy.

In one of the unpublished studies, researchers made a human artificial chromosome in the laboratory from chemical building blocks rather than chipping away at an existing human chromosome, indicating the increasingly powerful technology behind the new field of synthetic biology.

The development comes as the Government announces today that it will invest tens of millions of pounds in synthetic biology research in Britain, including an international project to construct all the 16 individual chromosomes of the yeast fungus in order to produce the first synthetic organism with a complex genome. Read more >>

Babies from the genetic pool of three people

While here in the United States we bicker about whether single-parent households can raise children as well as two-parent ones, in Britain, they’re way ahead of us. They’re up to three parents in the mix, bless their souls.

They don’t mean three parents under the same roof. That would be chaos, clearly. (The three wouldn’t be able to buy fitted sheets for a triple bed — plus their driveway probably would be too small.) They mean a kid made from the genetic goop of three people.

So, a kid with Mom’s eyes, Dad’s nose and the height of ... a generous DNA donor. An aunt or uncle? A neighbor? The pool guy? It’s a serious topic, with the serious goal of allowing parents who carry genetic defects to produce children who are free of those defects.

Genetically modifying an egg that carries a risk for muscular dystrophy, for example, would eliminate it in not only the baby, but in all future stock from that family line. A British committee, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, is now mulling whether to lift the ban on genetic modification. Read more >>