According to a group of biologists, the use of a gene editing technique that might alter human DNA across generations should be banned. According to researchers, there is a possibility that the technique can be used to heal genetic diseases and defects.

The new technique might also be used to improve human genetic traits that raised serious ethical concerns. The biologists fear that the technique might lead to unsafe or unethical uses. A letter has been published by Baltimore and 17 other scientists to the scientific community asking caution in using the technique.

"You could exert control over human heredity with this technique, and that is why we are raising the issue", said David Baltimore, a former president of the California Institute of Technology and one of the authors of the letter.

The scientists have reached at the conclusion that there is need of open conversation about the merits and risks of human genome modification by a broad cohort of scientists, social scientists, clinicians, and relevant public entities and interest groups.

The technology, known as Crispr/Cas9, exploits a mechanism of existing immune system of the body whereby cells remember the DNA of the viruses that attack them to destroy them more easily. According to researchers, they can activate the defense mechanism in order to identify a sequence of their choosing, after which any matching sequences will be automatically edited out.

Scientists at the Salk Institute in California have recently made use of Crispr/Cas9. They used to remove HIV from infected cells, and to create monkeys with customized mutations. Since then, this technique has been used by researchers to alter the DNA of human embryos, eggs and sperm cells. The researchers used this technique in a hope to make the technology applicable at in vitro fertilization clinics.