2019 – Posted in: Daily News

HUMAN GENOME EDITING

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered:

About the Global registry on human genome editing.
What is Gene editing or genome editing?
About the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

News Flash

An expert advisory committee of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved the first phase of a global registry to track research on human genome editing.

WHO has now announced plans for an initial phase of the registry using the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). This phase will include somatic and germline clinical trials.

World Health Organization

Why?

UN’s international public health monitor seeks to address the ethical and regulatory challenges surrounding promising new technologies to address gene based treatments.

Advantages

New genome editing technologies hold great promise and hope for those who suffer from diseases, once thought were untreatable.

WHO-International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)

The mission of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform is to ensure that a complete view of research is accessible to all those involved in health care decision making.
This will improve research transparency and will ultimately strengthen the validity and value of the scientific evidence base.
The registration of all interventional trials is a scientific, ethical and moral responsibility.

Clinical trial: For the purposes of registration, a clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes.

Genome editing/ Gene editing

It is a method that lets scientists change the DNA of many organisms, including plants, bacteria, and animals. Editing DNA can lead to changes in physical traits, like eye color, and disease risk.
The first genome editing technologies were developed in the late 1900s.
Recently, a new genome-editing tool called CRISPR, invented in 2009, has made it easier than ever to edit DNA.
CRISPR is simpler, faster, cheaper, and more accurate than older genome editing methods. Many scientists who perform genome editing now use CRISPR.

Source: World Health Organization