In breakthrough, scientists edit a dangerous mutation from genes in human embryos

"It feels a bit like a 'one small step for (hu)mans, one giant leap for (hu)mankind' moment," Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist who helped discover the gene-editing method used, called CRISPR-Cas9, said in an email.

"I expect these results will be encouraging to those who hope to use human embryo editing for either research or eventual clinical purposes," said Dr. Doudna, who was not involved in the study.