For scientists, and possibly for all humanity, a watershed event is about to take place. Biologists have long been closing in on a goal that is both alluring and frightening: to alter the genetic code of a human being. They have transplanted foreign genes into bacteria, fruit flies, even mice. Now medical researchers at the National Institutes of Health are ready to take the big step: within the next two months they will perform the first authorized gene transplants into humans.
The doctors intend to inject cells containing a gene from the bacterium E. coli into cancer patients at NIH. The...
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