By Phebe Hong
Nine months have passed since the startling news broke in November 2018 that Chinese researcher He Jiankui had used CRISPR/Cas9 to genetically modify the embryos of twin girls. The controversial news spurred the scientific and regulatory community into action. In late August 2019, two influential organizations — one from the private sector and one from the public sector — independently released statements announcing their efforts to establish standards for the nascent field of gene editing.
First, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), the advocacy organization representing cell and gene therapy companies, released its “Therapeutic Developers’ Statement of Principles,” offering an industry perspective on the use of gene editing technologies. Shortly thereafter, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced its plans to build a new registry and governance framework to track and regulate human gene editing trials. The statements symbolize an initial step by both private and public organizations to build consensus around responsible stewardship principles to prevent future scientific and ethical transgressions. It remains to be seen how such statements and plans will be implemented and how they will influence the field of genome editing research going forward.
