On Jul. 27, 2017, OHSU announced that Shoukhrat Mitalipov, an OHSU biologist, had successfully modified defective DNA in a human embryo using a technique called CRISPR. The work offers the possibility that one day science will be able to modify genes in human embryos to prevent disease.

Mitalipov created the first cloned monkeys in 2007 and in 2013 created the first human embryonic stem cells through cloning.