title: Towards a CRISPR view of early human development: applications, limitations and ethical concerns of genome editing in human embryos.
abstract: Developmental biologists have become increasingly aware that the wealth of knowledge generated through genetic studies of pre-implantation mouse development might not easily be translated to the human embryo. Comparative studies have been fueled by recent technological advances in single-cell analysis, allowing in-depth analysis of the human embryo. This field could shortly gain more momentum as novel genome editing technologies might, for the first time, also allow functional genetic studies in the human embryo. In this Spotlight article, we summarize the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system and discuss its potential applications and limitations in human pre-implantation embryos, and the ethical considerations thereof.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, and Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, Stockholm 14186, Sweden.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Plaza Reyes
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, and Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, Stockholm 14186, Sweden fredrik.lanner@ki.se.
authors.forename: Fredrik
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2771-7445
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lanner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D064113:CRISPR-Cas Systems / Q000235:genetics*; D033041:Embryo Research / Q000941:ethics; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000235:genetics*; D000072669:Gene Editing / Q000941:ethics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans
keywords: CRISPR; Embryo; Ethics; Genome editing