UK scientists edit DNA of human embryos 英国研究团队编辑人类胚胎中的 DNA_BBC

UK scientists edit DNA of human embryos 英国研究团队编辑人类胚胎中的 DNA

DNA 是生命的蓝图。英国的一组研究者已在试验中修改了人体胚胎的构造，这是英国首例。这个来自弗朗西斯·克里克研究所（The Francis Crick Institute）的团队即将解开有关人类生命起始的谜题之一。了解卵子受精后的情况可以帮助研究者寻找改进试管受精技术的方式，同时也可以解释一部分女性流产的原因。请听报道。

This research is unlocking the mysteries of life. We all started off as a single fertilised egg that grows into a body made of billions of cells, yet the first few steps are as critical as they're poorly understood.

The team at the Francis Crick Institute is investigating instructions in our DNA known as genes that are highly active in the week after fertilisation. By editing DNA to turn genes off, they can work out what they do.

Their first experiments published in the journal Nature show how instructions called OCT4 are essential for helping the embryo grow from a single cell to a hollow sphere called a blastocyst.

Researcher Dr Kathy Niakan says getting a complete understanding of early development could help infertile couples. These experiments have been legal since 2008 and have been recently made possible by rapid advances in the field of gene editing.

The work of the Crick in London is a feat of pure scientific discovery and the embryos will never be implanted in the womb. But other groups are working on modifying embryos to eliminate inherited diseases.