A US biotech company backed by Sam Altman and Brian Armstrong is reportedly pursuing embryo editing to produce a child free of hereditary illness
A US startup funded by Silicon Valley billionaires has been secretly working on an embryo-editing project that could lead to the birth of a “genetically engineered baby,” free of hereditary illnesses and with higher intelligence, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
Although gene-editing technology is already used for postnatal treatments, allowing scientists to edit genes in embryos with the intent of creating babies remains banned in the US and many other countries.
According to the report published on Saturday, a San Francisco-based startup called Preventive “has been quietly preparing what would amount to a biological first.” Founded earlier this year by gene-editing scientist Lucas Harrington, the company is reportedly backed by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong.
Preventive says its goal is to “end hereditary disease by editing human embryos before birth,” a claim that has ignited fierce debate over ethics, safety, and the specter of designer children. According to correspondence reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the company has been seeking locations where embryo editing is legal to conduct its research.
After being approached by the Wall Street Journal, Preventive, which had kept its plans quiet for six months, announced it had raised $30 million to explore embryo editing.
Armstrong, the cryptocurrency billionaire behind Coinbase, has reportedly told associates that gene-editing could produce children less prone to illness and once discussed the idea of secretly unveiling a healthy engineered baby to prompt public acceptance of the practice, the Wall Street Journal said.
Critics argue that such ventures risk crossing into eugenics. Fyodor Urnov, a director at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, said that people “armed with very poorly deployed sacks of cash” are effectively pursuing “baby improvement.”
