CRISPR: The science behind gene-edited 'designer babies'
Summary
TLDRIn 2018, Chinese scientist Jiankui He claimed to have created the first gene-edited babies using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, sparking global debate. The script discusses the difference between somatic and germline editing, explaining how CRISPR works as a natural bacterial immune system repurposed for gene editing. It also touches on ethical concerns and the technology's potential applications beyond 'designer babies,' such as in agriculture and medicine, emphasizing the importance of ongoing conversations about the ethical use of CRISPR.
Takeaways
- 🧬 Genetics has the potential to perfect physical and mental characteristics of unborn children, a concept often seen in science fiction.
- 🌟 In 2018, Chinese scientist Jiankui He claimed to have created the first gene-edited babies, Lulu and Nana, using CRISPR-Cas9.
- 🔍 The goal of the gene editing was to provide resistance to HIV by editing out a part of the DNA passed from the HIV-positive father.
- 🤔 The scientific community reacted with surprise and skepticism, raising concerns about the safety and ethics of germline gene editing.
- ⚠️ Germline editing is controversial because it involves heritable changes that can be passed down through generations.
- 🧬 CRISPR-Cas9 is a naturally occurring bacterial immune system that has been harnessed for gene editing purposes.
- ✂️ CRISPR functions by using the Cas9 protein to cut DNA and guide RNA to identify the specific DNA sequence that needs editing.
- 🌱 CRISPR is used in various applications beyond creating 'designer babies', including improving crop health and researching cancer treatments.
- 🚫 The scientist who created the CRISPR babies has been widely condemned, losing his job and prompting China to take preventive measures against such practices.
- 💡 The incident sparked an important ethical debate on the limits of gene editing and its implications for society.
Q & A
What is the significance of gene editing in terms of physical and mental characteristics of unborn children?
-Gene editing holds the potential to alter and potentially perfect the physical and mental characteristics of unborn children, although this is a highly controversial and complex field that raises ethical and safety concerns.
What did Chinese scientist He Jiankui claim to have achieved in late 2018?
-He Jiankui claimed to have created the first-ever gene-edited babies, twin girls named Lulu and Nana, using the CRISPR-Cas9 tool to edit out a part of their DNA to make them resistant to HIV.
What was the scientific community's reaction to He Jiankui's announcement?
-The announcement was met with surprise and skepticism, with many in the scientific community expressing concerns about the safety, ethics, and the potential for germline editing.
What is the difference between somatic editing and germline editing as mentioned in the script?
-Somatic editing involves changes to an organism that are not passed on to offspring, whereas germline editing alters sperm or egg cells, leading to heritable mutations that can be passed down for many generations.
What are the components of the CRISPR system?
-The CRISPR system consists of the Cas9 protein, which acts as the 'scissors' to cut DNA, and guide RNA, which identifies the specific DNA sequence that needs to be edited.
How is CRISPR-Cas9 used in the context of gene editing?
-Scientists use CRISPR-Cas9 by identifying a DNA sequence to edit, creating a specific guide RNA for that sequence, and then introducing the Cas9 protein with the guide RNA into cells to cut and modify the DNA as needed.
What is the natural role of the CRISPR-Cas9 system?
-In nature, the CRISPR-Cas9 system serves as a bacterial immune system, providing bacteria with a defense mechanism against invading viruses.
What are some non-controversial applications of CRISPR technology mentioned in the script?
-CRISPR is used in various applications such as creating healthier and stronger crops, and in medical research to find drugs that may work best to treat specific cancers.
What is the current stance of the scientific community on creating 'designer babies'?
-The scientific community generally agrees that creating 'designer babies' with hand-picked traits is not feasible in the near future due to the complexity of genetic traits and the ethical considerations involved.
What has been the consequence for He Jiankui following his controversial gene-editing experiment?
-He Jiankui has been largely condemned for his use of germline editing, lost his job, and China has taken steps to prevent such occurrences in the future.
What ethical debate has been sparked by He Jiankui's gene-editing experiment?
-The experiment has initiated a significant ethical debate on the limits of gene editing, the potential for 'designer babies,' and the importance of considering the long-term implications of such technology on society.
Outlines
🧬 Gene Editing Controversy: CRISPR and the Birth of Designer Babies?
The paragraph discusses the potential and controversy surrounding gene editing, particularly focusing on the case of Chinese scientist He Jiankui's claim to have created the first gene-edited babies using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. He allegedly edited the DNA of twin girls, Lulu and Nana, to make them resistant to HIV, sparking global debate. The scientific community expressed skepticism and concern over the safety and ethics of germline editing, which involves altering inheritable genetic material. The paragraph also explains the difference between somatic and germline editing, with the latter being more contentious due to its heritability across generations. CRISPR-Cas9 is described as a naturally occurring bacterial immune system that has been repurposed for gene editing, allowing for precise and efficient modifications to DNA.
🌱 Ethical Debates and Future Implications of CRISPR Technology
This paragraph delves into the broader implications and ethical considerations of CRISPR technology beyond the creation of 'designer babies.' It acknowledges the condemnation and job loss faced by He Jiankui for his controversial germline editing. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of the ongoing ethical debate, suggesting that while the incident in China was irresponsible, it has prompted a necessary societal conversation. The potential applications of CRISPR are highlighted, including improving crops and personalized cancer treatments, indicating that the technology has vast potential beyond genetic enhancement of humans. The paragraph concludes by suggesting that while the idea of designer babies is currently unrealistic, the discussion on the limits of scientific innovation and ethics is crucial as we advance in the field of gene editing.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Gene Editing
💡CRISPR-Cas9
💡Germline Editing
💡Somatic Editing
💡Guide RNA
💡Ethical Debate
💡Designer Babies
💡HIV Resistance
💡DNA Editing
💡Heritable Mutation
Highlights
Genetics has the potential to perfect physical and mental characteristics of unborn children.
Chinese scientist Jiankui He claimed to have created the first gene-edited babies using CRISPR-Cas9.
The gene-edited twin girls, Lulu and Nana, were engineered to resist HIV.
The scientific community was surprised and skeptical about the gene-edited babies announcement.
Germline editing is controversial due to its ethical implications and potential dangers.
Germline editing differs from somatic editing as it can be passed down to future generations.
CRISPR-Cas9 is a naturally occurring DNA editing system used as a bacterial immune response.
CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.
Cas9 protein acts as molecular scissors, cutting DNA at specific sequences.
Guide RNA directs the Cas9 protein to the specific DNA sequence that needs to be edited.
CRISPR can be used to delete, modify, or insert new DNA sequences.
CRISPR is being used beyond creating designer babies, including in agriculture and medical research.
CRISPR is used to understand gene functions and their roles in diseases like cancer.
The creation of CRISPR babies has been widely condemned, and steps have been taken to prevent such occurrences.
The CRISPR babies incident has sparked an ethical debate on the use of gene-editing technology.
While designer babies are not imminent, the conversation on ethics in gene editing is crucial.
Scientists continue to explore the potential of CRISPR to improve human life ethically.
Transcripts
genetics what can it mean the ability to
perfect the physical and mental
characteristics of every unborn child
it's the stuff of science fiction the
wild imaginings of hollywood films or is
it
in late 2018 chinese scientist jean cue
her shocked the world claiming to have
created the first ever gene edited
babies twin girls named lulu and nana
using a tool called crispr cast 9. right
after we send her husband's burn into
her egg
we're also sending a little bit of
protein and instruction for a gym
surgery hus said he had edited out a
part of their dna passed on from their
hiv positive father
this was to ensure the babies were born
with a resistance to the virus the
announcement was met with surprise and
skepticism from the scientific community
anything like this you're gonna get
caught because there's a
there's just so much material that you
don't know that's going on
that it it's dangerous and it's
unethical so that's why today
there's such a
tumultuous response against germline
gene editing it's that term germline
editing that makes crispr controversial
there's a distinct difference between
editing embryos which is what happened
in china and editing genes in a lab
neville sanjana a scientist at the new
york genome center and nyu works with
crispr technologies and he explains the
difference
somatic editing are things you do in one
organism that is only in that organism
whether it be a plant or an animal
whatever
but germline editing is is much more
serious stuff because that when you edit
say the sperm or the egg cells that's
something that's now a heritable
mutation that's that's passed down to
every cell in the next generation and
potentially for many generations after
it so what exactly is christopher cast9
at its heart um crispr
and
cas9 are our dna editors their dna
modifying systems crispr wasn't created
by humans it occurs naturally one i
think incredible thing that to know
about crispr systems and cast nine is
that they weren't just created in a lab
they're actually naturally existing
proteins
and the natural role of
cas9 and crispr systems in nature is a
bacterial immune system it was actually
less than a decade ago scientists
realized the immense applications of
crispr for gene editing crispr stands
for clustered regularly interspaced
short palindromic repeats
it has two components that make it what
it is the cas9 protein which cuts the
dna essentially acting as the scissors
and a guide rna which is the brains of
the operation recognizing what dna needs
to be edited
to use the crispr tool scientists first
identify the sequence of dna that they
want to edit then create a specific
guide rna to recognize that piece of dna
the rna is placed inside the cutting
tool the cas9 protein this is then
introduced into the cells it locates the
target sequence that the rna has been
designed to recognize and then cuts the
dna
once the cut is made scientists can
delete modify or insert entirely new dna
sequences okay so that still seems a bit
complex and you're probably thinking i
really don't understand what that means
think of it like editing a document
you find the errors or the words you
don't want you highlight them and remove
or replace those words that's
essentially what crispr does in dna and
how it was used to edit the embryos in
china crispr it's so useful i mean
scientists have been trying to introduce
you know changes into the dna in order
to understand the function of genes in
order to understand the function of the
bits of dna in between the genes
for years and
you know we've been there's been
techniques to do that but this allows
really
accurate changes to be done very quickly
crispr is being used in many different
ways that don't involve making designer
babies it's used in everything from
creating healthier and stronger crops
like wheat to finding drugs that may
work best to treat a specific cancer so
we have a quite a new technology at the
sanger institute
where we take
tissue from people with cancer so we
take a bit of the cancer tissue and
we're actually able to grow it
in culture and then what we do is we can
treat these these cells from the patient
with crispr cas9 and we can basically
work out
what um which g which genes are
involved with the cancer of that
particular patient so while crispr has
opened up a whole new realm of
possibility when it comes to gene
editing experts agree that this doesn't
mean we will see designer babies with
hand-picked eye colors or resistance to
cancer anytime soon it's not going to be
that easy to make someone super strong
or give them superhuman eyesight
these are complex genetic traits and
we don't fully understand them the
scientists who created the crispr babies
has largely been condemned for his use
of germline editing he's lost his job
and chyna has taken steps to prevent
this from happening again
but there is no denying it has opened up
a conversation about crispr as a gene
editing tool i think what's really
interesting is this sort of ethical
debate that's now happening
and i think there's a really
i think while what happened in china was
irresponsible in the way it was done i
think on the other hand
you know it we are now having a
conversation and i think it's an
important conversation to have in a
society
where success is determined by science
so while science fiction has become
reality we aren't likely to see
hollywood's version of designer babies
in the foreseeable future
but an important debate on ethics and
how far is too far has now begun as
scientists continue to push the limits
of innovation using crispr to better
human life the world over
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