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Every year, studies are published that reveal more efficient and effective techniques to control the expression of genes within plants, animals and worryingly, in humans. While I can see the enormous benefits of down regulating genes involved in disabilities and disease, I can also see how the system might be abused.
Using biomechanisms within specific bacteria to edit the genes of another species has been around since 2012, giving us an exciting glimpse into what the future might hold. Along with these recent developments in CRISPR editing are a raft of controversial studies that straddle the boundary of ethical decency and therein lies the problem; the research is progressing so fast; the legal and ethical regulatory bodies cannot keep up.
I don’t doubt that the vast majority of researchers have lofty aspirations in the realms of improving human health and well being, but when their studies are funded by unscrupulous business leaders, it’s not hard to see where their loyalties lay or how the focus of interest influenced.
Of the successful trials published in recent years, CRISPR mechanisms have shown great promise in reducing the severity of genetic deafness in mice, created mushrooms that keep their colour for longer before browning, and treated sickle-cell anaemic bone marrow cells in mice. As the power to manipulate genes…