Designer Baby Companies Are in Turmoil

Two companies that launched last year with plans to create gene-edited babies have already shut down, citing money issues and internal conflict. One of them, Manhattan Genomics of New York, closed abruptly shortly after announcing a team of scientific advisers in October that included a prominent fertility doctor, a data scientist who worked for de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences, and a scientist who pioneered a “three-parent” IVF technique. The other, California-based Bootstrap Bio, said it ceased operations in late 2025, as first reported by Mother Jones. Manhattan Genomics and Bootstrap Bio had ambitions to edit DNA in human embryos with the goal of preventing serious disease in babies. Known as germline editing, the idea is highly controversial because any changes made at the embryo level would be passed on to future generations. It’s different from gene-editing treatments currently being tested on patients, which only affect the treated individual. The safety and efficacy of germline editing is also unproven. One concern is that the technology can result in unintended, potentially harmful “off-target” edits. Many researchers worry that permitting embryo editing to address serious diseases will inevitably lead to it being used for enhancement purposes, such as appearance or intelligence, to make “designer babies.” It’s currently prohibited in the US and many other countries to initiate a pregnancy with an edited embryo. There are three known children who were