‘WHO’ issues new Recommendations on Human Genome Editing

• 14 Jul 2021

The World Health Organization has issued new recommendations on human genome editing.

Major Recommendations

• Regulation and Creation of a Database: Among other things, it stressed the need for regulation and the creation of a database to track all forms of gene manipulation, providing a full overview, including pre-clinical research.
• Whistleblower Mechanism: It also called for a “whistleblower mechanism”- this would enable people to alert the WHO if they have concerns about unethical and unsafe research into genome editing. The WHO could then demand that the country’s authorities take action.
• National and Regional Authorities: The expert committee also called on national and regional authorities to simplify the task of supervising and spotting worrying developments in genome editing by attributing consistent keywords to different types of research.

Gene Editing with Recent Technology

• Gene editing has been revolutionised by the development of tools like CRISPR-Cas-9, which won its co-creators the Nobel Chemistry Prize last year and which can change the DNA of animals, plants, and micro-organisms with extreme precision.
• Such developments carry huge potential benefits for diagnoses, treatment, and the prevention of genetic disorders, but have also have unsafe and unethical uses.

WHO Expert Group on Human Genome Editing

• The WHO commissioned an expert group to study the implications of human gene editing back in 2018 after a Chinese scientist He Jiankui controversially claimed to have created the world’s first genetically edited babies. He Jiankui’s announcement that he had altered the DNA of twin girls in southern China by using molecular scissors – ostensibly to prevent them from contracting HIV — caused a global backlash.
• Other violation was from Russia:Russian biologist, Denis Rebrikov in June 2019 announced he wanted to make similar use of Crispr — to help deaf parents have children without the disability — to which the UN health agency voiced alarm.

WHO’s Caution

• WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to bar any further work on so-called germline genome editing, which alters the genome of human embryos and can be passed on to subsequent generations, “until the technical and ethical implications have been properly considered”. Scientists cautioned that the untested procedure was unethical and potentially dangerous.