DeSciNYC: Genome Editing in Early Human Embryos

​Genome editing tools allow the introduction of precise changes in the DNA. For this ability, they became indispensable for basic biological research and hold great promise for future therapeutic applications. The same technologies are being utilized also in early human embryos for better understanding of key developmental regulators and DNA repair mechanisms. In the future, precise correction of specific genes might enable curing devastating diseases early in the development or decreasing the risks of certain diseases. Although continuous research is needed before such an intervention becomes safe, the first gene-edited babies were already born. This talk aims to contribute to the debate about human germline gene editing by putting it into a broader context of human biology, discussing the benefits, current limitations, and possible future alternatives leading to the prevention of genetic diseases.

Stepan Jerabek is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Pediatrics Department at Columbia University. He is also an associate scientist at IOCB Prague, an institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Stepan’s interest in early development and genome stability brought him to the Egli laboratory, where he uses genome editing tools to study DNA repair in human preimplantation embryos. In 2024, Stepan was the recipient of the Druckenmiller Fellowship Award from the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute. Stepan completed his doctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Germany and was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, working in the lab of genetics pioneer George Church.

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