The Inside Science programme on BBC Radio 4 features an interview with Professor Kathy Niakan – a developmental biologist at the University of Cambridge – discussing her research on genome editing in human embryos.
Professor Niakan discusses her group's work using genome editing to study early human embryo development, including research aimed at understanding the function of key genes involved in cell fate decisions.
The interview relates to recent findings published in Nature on the role of the NANOG gene in early human development, which is also the subject of a BioNews news article published today (see BioNews 1345).
Under strict regulatory oversight, the researchers used base editing to disrupt NANOG in donated human embryos and investigate how early embryonic cells form distinct lineages that contribute to fetal and extraembryonic tissues.
The programme is available on BBC Sounds. The segment begins approximately 16 minutes into the episode and runs for around seven minutes.