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The OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and his husband are backing a controversial startup exploring the genetic engineering of babies to eliminate hereditary diseases.
Preventive says its goal is to “correct devastating genetic conditions” and that if successful, gene editing could be one of the most important health breakthroughs of the century.
Preventive has raised $30 million from private backers and set up headquarters in San Francisco. It is a public-benefit corporation, meaning it is a for-profit entity legally committed to a public good other than maximising shareholder value.
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Altman, his husband Oliver Mulherin and Brian Armstrong, the chief executive of cryptocurrency platform Coinbase, are among the investors.
Gene editing in sperm, eggs or embryos is highly controversial. Opponents say it raises critical ethical questions and its safety has not been proven. Gene editing with the intention of creating a baby is illegal in the US, UK and many countries around the world.
Editing babies’ DNA is banned in much of the world ALAMY Preventive has been searching for a country where embryo editing is legal to conduct tests, according to The Wall Street Journal, with the United Arab Emirates mooted. Preventive scientists are said to be working towards creating a child born from an embryo that has been edited to prevent a hereditary disease. The company has reportedly identified a couple with a genetic disease who would be interested in taking part. Mulherin, a software developer who married Altman in 2024, said he was the driving force behind the couple’s investment in Preventive. The couple welcomed a son eight months ago. • Tech bosses lamenting AI doomerism have only themselves to blame Armstrong, whose net worth is $12.5 billion according to Forbes, said it was correct to attempt to eliminate preventative diseases. “More than 300 million people globally live with genetic disease,” he said. “Foundational research should be done to determine if safe and effective therapies can be developed to cure these diseases at birth. It is far easier to correct a smaller number of cells before disease progression occurs, such as in an embryo.” Brian Armstrong, the head of Coinbase, also backs the startup KARL MONDON/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP/TNS Gene-editing technology is advancing rapidly. In May doctors in America announced that a baby with an extremely rare and life-threatening genetic disorder had its DNA rewritten in a world first that could lead to more personalised gene-editing therapies. • Doctors rewrite baby’s DNA to cure genetic disorder in world first Scientists from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania used the cutting-edge Crispr gene-editing technique. It can make precise edits to DNA within living cells, altering its code one letter at a time. Lucas Harrington, founder of Preventive, said he received his PhD in the lab of the Crispr Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna. Harrington and Doudna later founded a company together. Despite the prospect of eliminating certain diseases, ethical questions remain. Some tech companies are going further and exploring technology that would allow parents to see a child’s likely intelligence and height. “The tech people control so much of their lives it’s like, ‘Why shouldn’t I have the perfect child?’” Dr Marcelle Cedars, the lead physician at the University of California, San Francisco’s IVF clinic told the WSJ. “But children, they come hardwired, and I don’t think you can predict that.” • Editing gut bacteria is next frontier for Crispr In 2019 a Chinese scientist was jailed for three years after creating what are believed to have been the first gene-edited babies. He Jiankui was convicted of violating a government ban by conducting experiments on human embryos to give them protection against HIV. Scientists around the world condemned He after the birth of twins in November 2018. He has said the babies are healthy, though their identities have not been publicly disclosed.
