Crispr Gene Editing Tool - Good Or Bad

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by SuiDhaaga, Jun 23, 2021.

  1. SuiDhaaga

    SuiDhaaga IL Hall of Fame

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    CRISPR, have you heard if it?

    People say this gene editing tool will be used to play God.

    Is this true?

    Is there any good this technology will do?
     
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  2. MalStrom

    MalStrom IL Hall of Fame

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    We routinely use this in the lab on cell lines. It is not yet developed enough to use effectively in vivo despite salacious claims. Don’t believe everything you read.
     
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  3. Hopikrishnan

    Hopikrishnan Platinum IL'ite

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    That "yet" is the one that could bother the lay persons. We tend to fret over unpublished work from rogue labs, w/ evil scientists and their english accents. The sort of thing that happens in Mission Impossible episodes.
    Salacious !? :tonguewink:
     
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  4. MalStrom

    MalStrom IL Hall of Fame

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    People have been sounding the alarms ever since DNA was discovered. I’m still waiting. :laughing:
     
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  5. nuss

    nuss Platinum IL'ite

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    CRISPR is a tool- one of many- to understand gene function. It is much easier than other tools in application because it uses DNA instead of making protein-based editing tools which are trickier and expensive. It’s good for many applications- can be used in non- model organisms to answer specific questions related to the function of a gene. Rest assured, there are many regulatory bodies that oversee the use of gene editing not only in humans but also animals/plants in general. Although in theory it can be used for precision medicine (and has been approved for conditions where no other treatment is available) researchers are still testing any off target affects.
     
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  6. SuiDhaaga

    SuiDhaaga IL Hall of Fame

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  7. 1Sandhya

    1Sandhya Platinum IL'ite

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    Well @nuss not picking on you per se, but this part’s a little disingenuous. Don’t you mean regulators in the US and western world only?

    Cos something something China something something gene edited babies something something born in 2020 right?

    What CRISPR-baby prison sentences mean for research
     
  8. Hopikrishnan

    Hopikrishnan Platinum IL'ite

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    For history-of-science buffs, here is a review of what has happened thus far, including the Chinese cloning efforts in the previous post:

    Cloning humans is technically possible. It's curious no one has tried - STAT

    The use of current or some future gene-editing technology, may go on to produce a Jeff Bezos with full head of hair. In one Thanksgiving Dinner roundtable our party had already wondered whether evil intents of geniuses are blunted when there is hair on the head. All the time spent on the care and contemplation of hair might have cut into the time plotting something else. Would Dr.No may have said YES half the time if he had some hair ?
    Some excerpts from the linked history:
    It is now clear that many countries would treat human cloning as illegal in one way or another. But others, with bigger things to worry about, would not. And the perceived desire for cloned humans has not entirely dissipated. Couples grieving the loss of a beloved child (a favorite sympathetic example of would-be cloners) have, sadly, not disappeared.

    Ambitious young scientists eager to make a splash with the firm if unfounded expectation that, even if initially rejected, they will ultimately be hailed as modern Galileos, have not disappeared either. Witness He Jiankui, although his three-year prison sentence, announced at the end of 2019, may have had a chilling effect on some of them, or at least might lead them to be more careful about where and how they operate.

    And those who could star in the favorite fictional plot — egocentric billionaires who want to clone themselves — have only increased in number and, it seems plausible, in revealed egocentricity. Some of these billionaires are openly pursuing immortality, so why not look into cloning?​
    I was totally amused at this piece of history within the article:
    It took another six years for the Mitalipov group to report successfully cloning human embryos, in that case from human embryonic cells, and making two human embryonic stem cell lines from those cloned embryos. ..... (Oddly, the secret ingredient that led to his success with humans was adding caffeine to the culture medium … .)​
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2021
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  9. MalStrom

    MalStrom IL Hall of Fame

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    This was a rogue researcher and China came down like a ton of bricks on him. None of this was endorsed by the government.
     
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  10. nuss

    nuss Platinum IL'ite

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    Yes, that’s correct. One of the scientists in China did edit the gene of twin embryos to give them protection from HIV but h ended up in jail and the scientific community all over the world became even more stringent.
     
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