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Don’t edit the human germ line

Heritable human genetic modifications pose serious risks, and the therapeutic benefits are tenuous, warn Edward Lanphier, Fyodor Urnov and colleagues.

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Correspondence to Edward Lanphier.

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E.L. and F.U. are employees of Sangamo BioSciences, Inc.

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Lanphier, E., Urnov, F., Haecker, S. et al. Don’t edit the human germ line. Nature 519, 410–411 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/519410a

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