'Super puppies' created in DNA manipulation: Chinese mainland scientists turn genetic editing into reality
Chinese scientists breed two dogs that can build muscle faster than naturally bred animals after world-first editing of a mammal's genome
Removing an embryo from the womb, editing its genome and then reinserting the fetus back inside its mother may sound like a scene from a science-fiction movie.
But mainland scientists used this technique to breed a pair of so-called "super puppies" that can build muscle faster than their naturally bred peers.
This was the first time genome editing, a powerful tool that allows biologists to manipulate a person's or animal's DNA almost at will using molecular "scissors", has been performed on a mammal without the involvement of a surrogate mother to host the fertilised egg.
Details of the groundbreaking experiment - carried out by Professor Lai Xiangxue and his team in Guangzhou last year - is published in the latest Journal of Molecular Cell Biology.
Although the researchers stress they have no plans of using this technology on humans, the breakthrough has removed a major hurdle towards that by simplifying the process of genome editing and sidesteps the ethical complications related to having a surrogate host.
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In the future, such technology could be used to save children with defects from being aborted as such impairments could be "corrected" before they are born.