Genome editing raises complex issues for us all. Banning it is not the answer | Sarah Norcross

The director of the Progress Educational Trust says that only continued research will tell us what we can - or cannot - do with this powerful new technology

History is dotted with a long line of milestone discoveries that are widely recognised as turning points in science. The advent of a powerful technique for editing the genome - called CRISPR-Cas9 - is certain to go down as one of those defining moments.

Even though the technique was developed only three years ago, progress has been rapid. This has led to much excitement, in the scientific community and beyond, about its potential to transform the research landscape, our understanding of disease and even how we treat it. But there have also been concerns about the future applications of this technology - even before the revelation this year that Chinese researchers had used the technique for the first time to edit the DNA of non-viable human embryos.

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