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Correspondence

Nature 392, 645 (16 April 1998) | doi:10.1038/33511

Problems of germline therapy

Anne McLaren1 & Jonathan Ewbank2

  1. Wellcome/CRC Institute, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1ND, UK
    e-mail: Email: a.mclaren@welc.cam.ac.uk
  2. Centre dImmunologie de Marseille-Luminy, 163 Avenue de Luminy, Case 906, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France
    e-mail: Email: ewbank@ciml.univ-mrs.fr

You recently published a full-page report of a Californian symposium on germline gene therapy, and a leading article, without a single mention of preimplantation genetic diagnosis1.If a couple are at risk of having a child with a serious genetic disease, it is now possible for them to have their embryos screened at the eight-cell stage, after in vitro fertilization, to ensure that only unaffected embryos are transferred to the uterus.