tech bosses could be godfather to new wave of genetically engineered babies

Brian Armstrong (left) and Sam Altman (right) are early investors in a startup looking to create genetically engineered babies

The birth of a genetically engineered baby could be fast approaching,with a Silicon Valley startup as the mother and a group of tech billionaires as the proud godparents.

The startup company is Preventive,a public benefit corporation,which seeks to eradicate hereditary disease by editing human embryos before birth.

Gene-editing scientist Lucas Harrington founded the company,headquartered in San Francisco,earlier this year,and has already raised $30 million.

Preventive says its mission is to prove the technology can be made safe and transparent before any attempt to create a baby is made.

Harrington posted on X when the company was announced,claiming: ‘We believe that if proven safe,this could be one of the most important health technologies of our lifetimes.’

Future father of genetically modified babies? Lucas Harrington,founder of Preventive (Picture: X/@CRISPR_LuCas)

He continued: ‘Embryo editing has tremendous potential advantages,including precision,efficiency,and cost,but intervening at this delicate stage of development presents an enormous responsibility that must be addressed through careful research and regulatory oversight.

‘Unfortunately,the combination of limited expert involvement and lack of a clear regulatory pathway has instead created conditions for fringe groups to potentially take dangerous shortcuts that could harm patients and stifle responsible investigation.

‘Our goal is straightforward: to determine through rigorous preclinical work whether preventive gene editing can be developed safely to spare families from severe disease.

‘If our research shows it cannot be done safely,that conclusion is equally valuable.’

The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong are among the firm’s early investors.

Armstrong posted on X to share his excitement about backing the startup company. He wrote: ‘More than 300 million people globally live with genetic disease.

Caption: Brian Armstrong,chief executive officer of Coinbase Global Inc,has supported Preventive (Picture: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

‘Foundational research should be done to determine if safe and effective therapies can be developed to cure these diseases at birth.

‘It is far easier to correct a smaller number of cells before disease progression occurs,such as in an embryo.’

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This effort and idea is similar to Chinese scientist He Jiankui,who created the world’s first gene-edited babies – twins whose embryos had been changed to resist HIV.

He served three years in prison for illegal medical practices and,after being released,decided to focus on treating genetic diseases.

After this incident,multiple American researchers called for a global temporary suspension on all clinical uses of germline editing.

In 2019,U.S. senators introduced a common ground solution,encouraging international standards for germline gene editing to ‘prevent unethical researchers from moving to whichever country has the loosest regulations.’

Are genetically edited babies illegal in US?

Federal law prohibits the use of federal funds for research on human germline gene therapy.This type of genetic modification is controversial.It could spare future generations in a family from having a particular genetic disorder,but it might affect a fetus in unexpected ways.Also,as the people who would be affected are not yet born,they can’t choose whether to have the treatment or not.The above ethical concerns mean the U.S. government does not allow federal funds to be used for research on this.However,there is no law banning this therapy through private funding,meaning you could operate a privately funded lab and conduct non-clinical,human gene therapy research.But to sell the therapy,they would need FDA approval for clinical studies and marketing.