Cathy Tye Launches US Embryo Gene-Editing Startup 8 Years After He Jiankui Babies
Updated
Updated · dongascience.com · May 31
Cathy Tye Launches US Embryo Gene-Editing Startup 8 Years After He Jiankui Babies
3 articles · Updated · dongascience.com · May 31
Summary
Cathy Tye said she is launching a US startup to edit human embryos, framing the effort as a legal, transparent push to prevent inherited diseases such as Huntington’s, cystic fibrosis and some cancers.
CRISPR-Cas9 has made DNA editing far easier, Tye said, but she argued the main barrier is regulatory approval rather than technology and urged authorities to ease blanket restrictions so companies can prove medical benefits.
Live-birth embryo editing still faces an international ban because gene cuts can misfire and create unforeseen diseases, and Tye’s own venture remains opaque after Manhattan Genomics, founded in August 2025, shut within four months.
He Jiankui, Tye’s ex-husband, was jailed for 3 years after creating the first gene-edited babies in 2018, and critics say her history of pursuing animal enhancements raises fresh fears of embryo editing sliding into modern eugenics.