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