It is ON: genetically modified CRISPR babies in China

Can the Chinese reproductive organ be reprogrammed to spawn parking meters.... think about it

Target gene:  They planned to eliminate a gene called CCR5 in hopes of rendering the offspring resistant to HIV, smallpox, and cholera.

Knocking out the CCR5 gene “is not entirely benign because it increases the risks associated with West Nile virus infection and influenza,” said Bruce Walker, director of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, who is involved in a long-running effort studying people who have HIV and are able to control the virus without antiretroviral treatment. “It is not without consequences.”

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612458/exclusive-chinese-scientists-are-creating-crispr-babies/

In [ANOTHER] new study, researchers examined glioblastoma brain cancer cells that had been removed from cancer patients, finding that a tiny segment of a common protein called GABP was the key in enabling cancer cells to activate the so-called immortality switch. When the researchers removed that protein segment, the cancer cells — both in lab dishes and when transplanted into mice — stopped their voracious multiplying and behaved like mere-mortal cells.