GENETIC EDITING

 

Life has existed on this planet for nearly 4 billion years. Human history begins only 300,000 years ago with the appearance of the Homo Sapiens and only in the last 65 years we have figured out how DNA works, built machines that could read it and then tools that could rewrite it. Technological development is faster and faster and with it more and more debates on ethics are opening up. One of these is about genetic editing: if humans had the technology to control the source code of life, what would happen when we turn it on ourselves?

In 2012 Jennifer Doudna and her team made one of the most important genetic discovers: to reprogram the CRISPR system to track down and edit a gene of our choice. (CRISPR is bacteria immune system. It records segment of viral DNA within its own genome, so when that virus attacks again, its DNA is easy to recognize and to cut. It prevents the virus from replicating)

Now we must distinguish between Somatic gene editing (blood, brain and skin cells where the DNA doesn’t get passed down to offspring) and Germline gene editing (it involve sperm, eggs or embryos changing the DNA of future generations), and also between therapy (treatment of diseases) and enhancement ( give advantages to people who are already healthy)

Germline editing is illegal in 25 countries, but the USA and China just have restrictions on it. Germline editing could help us prevent the transmission of diseases caused  by a single gene. But the thing is, most of the people who carry those genes already have a way to do that without editing any DNA. They can choose preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). In it, a fertility clinic removes cells from embryos created through IVF (in vitro fertilization) and tests their DNA for genetic diseases. Then they can select the embryos without the disease to implant in the woman. As technology advances, it’ll  be possible to get an entire genomic report card for your embryos.

If we think about the film Gattaca, where potential children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents, we think about something distant and fictional. But is it really so? What if this was upon us?  

Silvia, 5sc