Global Observatory Gathers to Expand Debate on Human Genome Editing

This week a diverse group of researchers, bioethicists, publishers and theologians, are gathering in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to extend and expand the rolling debate about the merits of human heritable genome editing (HHGE). The international summit is being hosted by the Global Observatory for Genome Editing, a coalition of interested scholars formed in 2020.

To mark the event, The CRISPR Journal (a sister journal of GEN) is publishing a series of 18 invited Perspectives from a diverse group of authors, many of whom will be presenting at the summit.

In an opening editorial in The CRISPR Journal collection, the Global Observatory organizers—Jacob Moses, PhD, Ben Hurlbut, PhD (Arizona State University), Sheila Jasanoff, PhD (Harvard University) and Kris Saha, PhD (University of Wisconsin)—emphasize the need to include “a wider diversity of human concerns by expanding the range of questions arising at the frontiers of biotechnology.” The goal of the event is to foster “meaningful exchanges between unlikely conversation partners.”

The May meeting follows a trio of international conferences to debate HHGE held over the past decade, beginning in Washington D.C...