New Genetic Engineering Method Called Promising — And Perilous

A powerful new technique for changing genes in insects, animals and plants holds great promise, according to a report from an influential panel of scientists. But the group also says it's potentially very dangerous. Even so, scientists should continue conducting experiments using this approach inside laboratories, the report urges. And the panel endorsed the possibility of conducting very controlled studies of creatures altered with a gene drive outside laboratories. The technique involves combining new methods for making very precise changes in DNA with a gene drive, which is a sequence of DNA that can cause a genetic change to be inherited much more easily by the offspring of an organism. That can be done using a technology called CRISPR/cas-9 and other methods.