Uc Science Today

Stem cells studies have been controversial, but once scientists started using adult cells, instead of embryos, their experiments became more acceptable. Neurologist Lauren Weiss of the University of California, San Francisco, says with technological advancements, researchers are now facing new challenges. "A lot of the current public debates are around gene editing technologies, so we are not actively using those in the labs now. But I think that’s where I think some of the concern has shifted. So with this new ability to make a change in someone’s genome, if it is done at a very early stage of development, it could affect every generation from there on out.” Weiss, who is studying brain disorders using neurons grown out of stem cells, thinks that researchers can use gene editing without ethical implications. "But that is sort of a thought of where it could go in the future, where we sort of need to be prepared to think about what are the limitations that we want to impose and need to impose.”