The Modern Debate on Gene Editing

what if a doctor told you

that your child will inherit a harmful

genetic disorder but you can choose to

have the disorder essentially cured

i’m assuming you would say yes what if

the doctor told you that this procedure

is called gene editing would your answer

change

educating yourself about gene editing

will help you understand

that it is not as elusive as it seems

gene editing is a technology that allows

scientists to change an organism’s dna

by either adding removing or editing

specific dna sequences

three well-known methods of gene editing

are crispr

which is an acronym for clustered

regularly interspaced short palindromic

repeats

talon which is an acronym for

transcription activator like nucleuses

and zfn which is an acronym for zinc

finger nucleuses

crispr which is the most widely known

gene editing tool

is a prokaryotic immune system that has

been engineered for human use in the

form of gene editing

when a virus enters the bacterial cell

the crispr produces

proto-spacers in order for it to

remember the virus

when the virus returns the bacteria

produces short rna sequences

that are then able to target cut up and

disable the viral dna

this process of cutting up and finding

specific dna sequences

is being researched for human use in the

form of gene editing

crispr systems are more widely used than

other technologies

because it is more efficient in

targeting varying gene sequences

this is because the protospacer at the

beginning of the guide rna

is about 20 nucleotides long in crispr

technologies

however it is 100 to 150 nucleotides

long and other technologies

so crispr systems are more efficient in

targeting varying gene sequences

after entering the body through stem

cells a viral vector or other means

crispr binds to the rna rna controls

protein synthesis and control

and carries instructions from human dna

after this crispr rna complex targets

the specific section in the dna that

will be edited

and then the dna is cut at these

sections then the modifications are

introduced

and the dna repairs itself with these

modifications

one way to envision gene editing is to

think of a stack of multi-colored blocks

if i take one color and stack out then

the other blocks are still in the stack

but that color is not expressed in the

stack anymore

this is similar to removing the

expression of a gene in gene editing

although the most popular way of gene

editing being used is to treat genetic

disorders that is not the only way that

gene editing affects people

some may believe that the benefits or

drawbacks of gene editing will never

apply to them

and therefore they do not need to

develop an opinion about the technology

however gene editing affects human lives

in many other ways

gene editing can aid in drug discovery

cancer treatment modification of food

disease modeling and creation of

synthetic materials

any one of these applications has a

potential to save an enumerable amount

of lives

however with each of these applications

come

implications and concerns toward this

technology

although cutting human genetic material

sounds frightening

there’s a lot of research from

individuals and biotechnology

corporations

necessary in order for gene editing to

become widespread and used in a clinical

setting in recent years there’s been a

growing number of gene editing related

clinical trials

and with the growing number of trials

and knowledge about gene editing

one could prognosticate that someday in

the future gene editing will appear

in a clinical setting one way that

genoming could be used in a clinical

setting is to cure monogenic disorders

for diseases

such as cystic fibrosis or muscular

dystrophy

while no human successes have been

recorded yet

researchers have conducted long-term

studies of gene editing in mouse models

in one study researchers use viral

delivery of crispr to mouse cells in an

effort

to cure the protein that causes muscular

dystrophy

muscular dystrophy was essentially cured

in these mice

because the non-mutated protein was

expressed a year after treatment

procedures such as this could help

eliminate potentially fatal

genetic diseases that an offspring could

inherit

not only can gene editing cure genetic

disorders

but it also has a potential for use in

cancer treatment

researchers are studying how they can

engineer a patient’s own t

cells to recognize surface protein of

tumor cells

in order to fight cancer more

effectively

the t cells will then kill the cancer

more effectively since it is able to

target the cancer

better and therefore will allow a better

immune response to the tumor

knockout screening for drug discovery is

yet another application of gene editing

knockout screening inhibits the function

of certain sections of a gene

to determine how the cell would be

affected by a medicine

knockouts are lines of genes very

genetically similar to the parent genes

and these are used to validate a drug

target and compare the effects of drugs

with gene editing tools these knockouts

are able to occur

at a much faster speed and due to this

medicines are being able to be produced

more effectively and quickly

due to the accuracy at finding drug

targets

during this recent coronavirus pandemic

crispr cast 13 systems are being

researched for use in conjunction with

sherlock diagnostic systems

for coronavirus tests this test

takes about one hour to give results is

much cheaper than other tests

is a paper test that uses patient saliva

and has a high specificity in detecting

specific nucleic acids one reason it was

so challenging to reopen businesses in

public places was due to the lack of

quick widespread tests and tests such as

this crispr sherlock method

could be used for coronavirus or other

viruses

in order to have less people unknowingly

spread the disease

because of the potential gene editing

has in curing genetic disease

and for diagnostic use it is imperative

to learn about what gene editing is

and its implications because of its

future potential in a clinical setting

when people are at the doctor’s office

and a doctor asks if you want to get a

new

medicine or vaccine many people would

want to know about the vaccine’s purpose

and potential side effects before taking

this medicine

educating yourself about a new treatment

is similar to

understanding gene editing before using

it in a clinical setting

this will allow you to make an important

decision in the future

about whether you will allow a doctor to

give you a treatment that involves

genetic modifications

however with the new education comes

necessary understanding of societal and

scientific aspects of this technology

when i first said the word gene editing

an image of a baby that is stronger

smarter and definitely more good looking

than you probably appeared in your mind

while this alleged super baby could be a

possibility in the future

it is important now to distinguish

between gene therapy

and enhancement gene editing can be

divided

into heritable germline editing and

non-heritable somatic editing

but it further can be divided into

purposes of treatment

prevention and enhancement prevention or

risk reduction

is very important in the idea that it

will decrease the overall incidence of

the illness in the future

and it is a middle ground between gene

therapy

and over-editing for enhancement in 2016

a chinese scientist edited the embryos

of his future twin daughters

in an effort to prevent them from

developing hiv

this procedure was looked down upon by

the scientific community because the

actual

chance of these daughters developing hiv

was low

and this procedure could have increased

the risk of these daughters developing

other diseases

such as malaria with further research

into the effects

of editing certain genes researchers

could determine

the probability of a child facing

negative effects from this disorder

and then develop regulations for gene

editing based on the chance

that a child will inherit a harmful

genetic disorder

gene editing could be seen as

controversial due to the fears

surrounding super babies

off-target effects and potential

societal inequality

specifically there could be a division

between the rich

who would edit their children and the

poor who are then automatically inferior

there are ways this problem could be

reduced for example

there could be equal gene editing access

for all citizens in the future

and this could save millions in

long-term health care for chronic

genetic or immune

diseases also there is a worry

that people will overedit their children

and there will be super babies in the

future

scientists can regulate the extent and

reasons for gene editing to ensure

that gene editing is only used for

specific therapeutic reasons

in an effort to make a healthier

individual

in 2018 in response to increased

interest in gene editing technologies

the world health organization

established a committee to

discuss the ethics of gene editing and

its purpose

because of the potential that gene

editing has to cure disease

further research education and ethical

discussion

are necessary in order for gene editing

to be effectively used in a clinical

setting

we need to weigh the risk and reward of

these treatments that could affect

our lives and even our children’s lives

to properly weigh these factors

it is vital to understand about ethical

scientific

and social implications of this

technology

gene editing is a new technology that

has a lot of potential for the future

so it is imperative to learn about what

gene editing is

and its effects think about questions

that are posed

about the risk and reward of gene

editing how will gene editing inequality

be regulated

will the risk of off-target effects be

outweighed by the improvement in a

potentially fatal condition

how else can this technology be safely

used to improve our society

by recognizing these questions and

asking yourself these now

we can all be better equipped to

effectively explore potential solutions

to use gene editing in the future

although gene editing

sounds like a futuristic technology that

is going to cause more harm than good

we need to conduct research and

understand what gene editing is before

forming our opinion about the technology

science is all about research and gene

editing is no exception

we need to conduct research to

understand how this technology will

affect our lives and the lives of our

children

how will it affect health industry and

society and if

this technology is beneficial enough to

be part of standard medical care in the

future

if gene editing is used in the future

and a doctor asks if you want to use a

treatment that involves genetic

modification for your child

will you understand the science behind

this technology and consider its effects

or will you immediately oppose gene

editing because you do not know what it

is

thank you