Gametogenesis and natural fertilization are essential processes in sexual reproduction. They are the mechanism through which gametes (eggs and sperm) are generated from germ cells which, after undergoing meiosis, reduce their chromosomal load by half to allow genetic combination during [...]
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is at an unprecedented ethical crossroads: while France legally prohibits embryo selection to eliminate those with Down’s syndrome, considering it “eugenic drift”, in Silicon Valley the opposite practice is spreading: selecting embryos with supposed genes for [...]
CRISPR-based gene therapy represents one of the most promising frontiers of precision medicine, especially in the treatment of mitochondrial diseases, hitherto considered incurable. This article by Nicolás Jouve analyses the latest scientific advances that have made it possible to overcome [...]
The emergence of services like Nucleus Genomics, which offers expectant parents the opportunity to choose the embryo with the longest life expectancy, has set off alarm bells in the field of bioethics. Based on polygenic scoring algorithms, this procedure transfers [...]
Since its inception in the 1980s, genetic engineering has evolved to become a high-precision tool in medicine. The advent of technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 and its advancement towards systems such as prime editing and the recently developed bridge recombination has unlocked an unprecedented [...]
Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions of people worldwide, poses not only medical challenges, but also increasingly relevant ethical dilemmas. Although research into the causes of this disorder (genetic and environmental) and early diagnosis is progressing, the greatest [...]
The 25th anniversary of the first breakthrough in our understanding of the Human Genome is fast approaching. It was on June 26 2000, at a solemn briefing at the White House, that the completion of the “working draft” of the Human Genome [...]
A theoretical analysis by Australian authors and the newly created Uehiro Institute in Oxford has just been published in Nature, which we consider merits special attention. The article discusses gene editing in germ (gamete-generating) cells or human embryos using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique [1]. [...]
This Friday, 21st March, is “World Down Syndrome Day”, an annual celebration introduced by the United Nations in 2012. The date 21/03 is highly symbolic, referring to the three copies of chromosome 21 related to Down syndrome. Its objective is to [...]
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a rare disease, affecting one in every 10,000 births. It is a genetic disease, caused by mutations in the SMN1 gene (survival of motor neurons). The function of the SMN protein, the one encoded by [...]
A recent experiment published in the journal Cell Stem Cell reveals how scientists generated mice using the genetic input of sperm from two fathers. However, it should be clarified that oocytes from female mice were also used to obtain them. Haploid embryonic [...]
RNA (ribonucleic acid) is a molecule that has been recognized for its many important roles relating to the genetic information of living beings. Nonetheless, since its discovery associated with DNA, it has continued to be a source of quite extraordinary [...]
