Anyway, CRISPR...
If you're not sure exactly what CRISPR is, here is a short video to explain the basics.
- CRISPR Fixes Disease Gene in Viable Human Embryos
- CRISPR Screen Identifies Top 100 Essential Genes for Cancer Immunotherapy
- Researchers Used CRISPR to Successfully Increase HIV Resistance in Animals
Let me know what you think is the comments. Is CRISPR the future of health care, or a dangerous first step to designer babies?
63 comments:
According to the video, CRISPR is a new method that allows humans to manipulate strands of DNA accurately. In other words, we can now find a specific strand of DNA from a large strand much quicker than in the past. Many predict this may allow us to manipulate the traits of our offspring and more. The technology is still very new and was first reported on in 2012. Therefore, scientists are finding many ways to use it.
One such example of researchers using CRISPR is to test it with human embryos. The test had good results for the technique, but it's not recommended that it's used in the real world yet. In this instance, scientists manipulated the MYBPC3 gene which causes sudden death in young athletes. The goal was to "edit" out the trait without creating a mosaic. A mosaic is when unwanted mutations are created when manipulating the target gene. The results proved successful and efficient for the technique since 42 of the 58 embryos had a successful edit of the gene and 1 mosaic.
CRISPR is also helping in the fight against HIV. In China, researchers used CRISPR to make cells immune to HIV. They did it by placing a mutation in a gene called CCR5. In addition, researchers manipulated the STEM cell of a human fetal liver and placed it into mice. Thus, the T-cells were more resistant to HIV. Using these new findings, scientists are wondering whether this can be used for humans as well to prevent the spread of HIV.
I believe that CRISPR is the future of health care. CRISPR isn't a dangerous first step to designer babies because it has been designed to correct disease causing mutations. There is no motive to make a better human instead of making a human better. Although CRISPR can be life saving in the stages of early embryonic development, it is still not safe to use in clinics around the world. There are two dangerous outcomes of CRISPR being unwanted genetic mutations(also called off target mutations) and gene mosaics(when different cells in the embryo contain different genetic sequences).Although CRISPR CAS 9 is one of the most precise proteins to repair unwanted mutations, more research has to be done in order for it to be used at a clinical level. CRISPR is considered the most effective and efficient gene-editing tool available, because of its high efficiency on difficult to transfect cells. In China, researchers will able to generate HIV resistance in mice using CRISPR. This shows how efficient CRISPR can be. HIV effects 36.7 million people in the world which shows how tricky the HIV virus can be. Imagine if we could use CRISPR to cure all the viruses in the world. The life expectancy rates for humans would sky rocket and human evolution would increase. CRISPR isn't the start of designer babies, but it is the start of making life better.
Every time I read an article about CRISPR, I can hardly comprehend that it is real and that the experiments conducted are actually happening now, and not something from the future. After reading the article about a hundred genes for cancer immunotherapy by Sophia Ktori, I was surprised that there were already 100 genes narrowed down out of the thousands of genes that humans have. I learned that cancer cells have antigens that correspond to T-cells and allow them to avoid the immune system. I was most surprised by the fact that the list could be narrowed down just by inserting genes into the cells.
Similarly, I was pleasantly surprised but also concerned when I read the article "CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos" by Heidi Ledford. I was surprised because it took just one gene to cause such a serious condition, and also that even with such a precise technique only 42 embryos were successful out of 58. I am concerned because of the implications of doing such procedures. If all or even some diseases are treated by editing genes, then humans could become a 'super-species', which would make natural selection meaningless. This could make the population explode even more. Not that I want people to die, but doing so would disrupt the natural system. One extreme case could be if humans became immune to all illnesses and our immune systems became weaker from having nothing to fight, which could make us more susceptible to epidemics. There is also the concern of what other roles these genes play besides increasing risk for diseases. At the stage where not much is known about each of the genes, it is not a good idea to edit genes at random, especially when the effects would only become fully evident once the embryos grew older. If such processes do become perfected, in my opinion they should not be used until the full picture is understood and the ethics are considered. Editing genes doesn't just affect a single individual, but, to some extent, the future of the human race.
Finally, the article on HIV on 'Futurism' was exciting because it provides a way to cure a disease for which has no known medicine. I found it interesting that while the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy gene(MYBPC3) had a 42/58 (72%) success rate, the HIV gene CCR5 had just 21-28% efficiency. Perhaps it is due to the fact that they are different genes, or that the MYBPC3 gene was inserted directly with the CAS9 enzyme while the HIV gene (presumably) was edited the normal way. I find it concerning that different nations have different standards for human experimentation, and I think that it is necessary now to experiment, but not to implant the embryos.
Just a side note- I wish Neymar stayed on Barca, but he got a really good transfer deal.
CRISPR is the first step to designer babies. To further explain my reasoning, having the ability to eliminate the traits that are demanded by society to be ugly, is a way for irresponsible people to shine. Those who are smart, but bad could easily take advantage of this. Though CRISPR could be very useful with taking out genes that cause diseases or make people more susceptible to illnesses, it also opens the door for people to get rid of genes they find ugly. This may not seem bad, but it could lead to an entire trait disappearing. So to give an example, society could dictate that not having muscle is ugly, so then people program their children to be muscular. This isn't bad, but society’s insecurities shouldn't dictate what future generations should look like.
I was not very familiar with CRISPR before watching this video and reading these articles. I've read about similar ideas but found this very interesting. I do not doubt that the human body and technology is evolved enough to use this, but I am not confident that the world is ready for such an advancement. I support the use of CRISPR in targeting mutations and changing genomes to help the immune system and human health. But I believe it is ethically wrong for a parent to be able to "customize" their baby's genes and alter their appearance or characteristics. If CRISPR was to be accepted in today's world, I believe it should just be in the health world because from what I've learned, this can be of immense help to humans. As discussed in the first article, scientists targeted MYBPC3, a mutation that thickens heart muscle and can lead to sudden death. The use of CRISPR to change a mutation like this can save lives, which is why I believe that CRISPR has the ability to be a leading force in health care, but I am against the use of CRISPR in "designing babies" or changing genomes for reasons other than health and safety.
After reading the article on correcting a disease gene in human embryos, I believe CRISPR is both the future of health care and a dangerous first step into new territory. From the article, I can see that CRISPR is absolutely a viable technique that requires polish but will most likely be used in the future. However, its use and risks should both be considered before being put into further use. It can undoubtedly be a great step forward in health care by correcting disease genes or creating immunities towards them, but I do not believe it should be used to create 'designer babies.' For one, it would open up a flood of ethical discussion. Who should have the right to change the baby? What if the child dislikes the traits it was given against its will? Does the baby even have a will regarding its traits before it is even born? These would be just a few questions that arise if that became the case. CRISPR should be used for the greater good to help humans and save them from something terrible like cancer. It is one thing to immunize someone, it is a completely diffrent and unecessary animal to change their features or physical structure.
I have read about CRISPR before but I never thought it could be used for so much. Now, I can see that CRISPR can be used to help us in many ways. It is interesting that CRISPR can be useful in dealings with cancer and HIV, some of the deadliest diseases in the world. I am sure that CRISPR technology will eventually become good enough to fix many problems that cannot be fixed today. Developing CRISPR further could help scientists find a way to make all babies immune to diseases that injure many people. One problem with CRISPR is that it will create a way for people to 'design babies', which people might consider ethically wrong. However, by 'designing babies' that are immune or resistant to every bacteria or virus, disease-related injuries will become much less common. Eventually. all the diseases that kill people today may be completely eradicated. CRISPR can help many people's lives and should be used and developed.
CRISPR is a newly developed method, discovered in 2012 to allow scientists to manipulate DNA in a way that would allow us to pick and choose certain characteristics for our offsprings. Scientists have discovered how to do this, but not what the uses will be or when they will use it or how they will use it. The utilization of CRISPR in modern science would be extremely beneficial to humans for getting rid of genetic diseases and creating immunity for certain diseases. However, like all good things in science, an ethical discussion comes into play. Who will be able to take advantage of such an advancement? The rich, the poor, or everyone? Why do we get to choose what traits our future babies will have? Will it favor certain types of people? For example, during the late Middle Ages, it was considered, by the Catholic Church, desecration of the body to open it up to study it. There were protests against doctors and scientists who were trying to do this. Even with this controversy, it was pushed until it was commonly used all around the world. Now, it is extremely beneficial to medicine to be able to use cadavers to learn about the human body because we can use this knowledge to prevent and learn how to treat diseases. Just like the dissections of humans were argued, CRISPR is and will continue to be argued until it proves itself to be beneficial.
In the article “CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos,” it explains that a new technology called CRISPR can edit specific gene sequences to prevent disease or fix mutations. This new technology brings along a major debate on whether or not this technology should be used to create designer babies or used only to prevent disease. The case9 gene has to be used in embryos to fix any mutation or disease. This gene is very precise and efficient. It is not like anything else we have ever used. In an experiment, the case9 gene was tested to target a gene that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In this experiment, the scientist targeted two very large concerns about the CRISPR case9 gene. These two concerns are unwanted genetic changes called off target mutations ,and the risk of generating mosaics. Researchers found no off target mutations, and they only found one single mosaic in an experiment of 58 embryos. The CRISPR error rate can vary depending on the dna it encodes because it degrades faster then the dna it is encoding sometimes. More testing and long term research has to be done to find the long term effects, off target mutations, and correct unsafe features. One study done by Mitalipov’s group showed only one of fifty-eight experienced a mosaic. With this low risk of mosaics, it can lead to other use of CRISPR which is designer babies. One surprising fact mentioned in the article was embryos tested used their mothers dna instead of the research guided template. This suggest you couldn't add anything that was not their. This means technology will have to be more advanced to create designer babies ,but CRISPR might be the start. I believe CRISPR is the future of healthcare. Once this technology is perfected, it can correct mutations in the embryos.I believe this technology will lead to designer babies which I do not support. I do not think parents should be able to pick and choose their babies traits. CRISPR allows scientist to fix mutations or take out a certain gene sequence. I believe CRISPR is the future of health care, and it should only be used for correcting diseases.
I personally believe that CRISPR is the future of health care, because of how much it has contributed so far to finding cures for threatening diseases such as Cancer and HIV. I think it's incredible that Shashank Patel & Nicholas Restifo, and their team, were able to identify 100 essential genes that are necessary in the melanoma line so that the T cells can engage with them and kill them. This type of research is crucial towards finding ways to deal with the threat of cancer, and to possibly find an absolute cure for it in the future. This research also helped Patel & Restifo determine that the loss of genes that T cells require in order to kill the cancer cells may be at fault for the failure of immunotherapy in some patients. Knowing this information is crucial, because doctors and researchers can know study the tumor cells further and find better treatments for the patients who could not benefit from the immunotherapy. This type of research paves a path for more experiments and studies that will analyze the tumor cells and the possible 100 genes further, and shows great progress being made in the journey towards a cure for cancer. Furthermore, Chinese researcher Hu Chen and his team used CRISPR/Cas9 to improve HIV resistance in mice. Chen's team was succesfully able to edit CCR5 which helped make T-cells resistant to HIV, and the success of this research is crucial because perhaps humans can be treated the same way. HIV affects 36.7 million people all over the world, so finding a way for humans to develop immunity towards it is extremely important. CRISPR has greatly aided scientists, researchers and doctors in their experiments towards developing cures for harmful diseases, and is an extremely helpful tool to the medical science community. The matter of using CRISPR for designer babies is an ethical issue that brings up several debatable questions. Finding cures for Cancer, HIV, and several other diseases is much more important than editing the genes of human embryos in order to make them more physically attractive. Perhaps in order to prevent the abuse of CRISPR to create designer babies, there should be set regulations that would prevent people from genetically modifying the embryos. Using CRISPR to develop cures or at the very least immunities towards diseases affects and saves the lives of millions of people, whereas simply changing the genes of an embryo so that the baby can have a certain eye color is absolutely unnecessary and a waste of well developed technology.
CRISPR is a viable solution to the problem of human diseases and certain genetic disorders. At first glance anybody would chose to genetically eliminate all diseases and genetic deformities, thankfully CRISPR can make this a reality. From a healthcare and biological standpoint this is brilliant, but is it socially and economically responsible? I am coming to the conclusion that CRISPR may become a social nightmare because personal health and lifestyles will be considered unnecessary because of fetal DNA changes. Will humans stop caring about their lifestyle choices if they have changed their possibilities of predisposition to a disease. Furthermore, it is blatantly unethical to change nature, especially for "perfect babies." This type of genetic mutation will lead to the rich having control over which traits they prefer in babies creating a culture where genes act as greater social divisions than ever before seen. CRISPR is a definite possibility for the future of healthcare, however it should never be used to change physical characteristics.
I think that CRISPR is an amazing discovery. We can use this to completely wipe out a disease from someone’s system that could possibly kill them. This will increase life expectancy in humans which I believe everyone wants. I also think that this can really help scientists get more of a grasp on how to find the cure for cancer.
The only bad thing is that we can also give our children the genes we want them to have before they are born. In my opinion, I don’t think that this is right. I believe that a little randomization is good and a baby’s eye color for example is not going to harm them. Also, this will make everyone look the same. If we try to knock out traits that we personally don’t like, then eventually no one will have that trait. This results in everyone being the same and that isn’t right. Everyone should be able to have the physical traits that define them from someone else and that makes them unique. With this, no one will have that. I think that we need to use this responsibly for things like curing dangerous diseases instead of changing our child’s genes.
After watching the video and reading the articles I understand that CRISPR is a technique that uses the Cas9 gene to edit genomes in human embryos. This method is being researched by scientists to take out mutations in DNA strands that could cause diseases. For instance, researchers experimented with CRISPR when they tried to edit out the gene MYBPC3 which causes heart muscles to thicken. The test was successful when out of the 58 humans embryos tested only one had a mosaic. A mosaic is when different cells in the embryo contain different genetic sequences. Another risk of CRISPR is making off-target mutations, which is additional unwanted genetic changes. While there are success stories, this technique is still not safe enough to use in clinics since researchers are still uncertain how to fully stop off-target mutations. Chinese researchers are also successful in their experiments. They have engineered HIV-resistance in mice by using CRISPR to cause a mutation in the CCT5 gene. This mutation helps to prevent HIV from entering cells and making T-cells more resistant to HIV. All of this shows the health benefits of CRISPR however this technique brings up major ethical questions. CRISPR can be used to create designer babies. I am personally opposed to using CRISPR to change a babies genome since the child has no say over what happens to them. Another question with designer babies is, who are the people that will use it? Will it be only the wealthy or will other people also be able to use it? With a future where parents can customize a child personality and appearance will this eventually lead to traits disappearing? With CRISPR babies might not have any diseases in the future. While this is good news, one of its effects will be an increase in the worlds population. Are we all ready for the big changes that CRISPR will bring?
I believe CRISPR is both the future of health care and a dangerous beginning into something so new. From the article, I can see that CRISPR is absolutely a great technique that requires some fixing but cannot be used now. However, we should evaluate its use and risks before they can be used. It may be a great step forward in health care by fixing disease genes or creating immunities towards them. Despite the fact that iy could helo i do not believe it should be used to create 'designer babies.'. For example , what if the baby doesnt come out to be what you wanted? What if the child doesnt like the traits it has? ? This is only 2 questions out of a millon questions that can come up in a situation like this. CRISPR should be used to help humans and save them from terrble things. It is one thing to treat someone, but its another thing to change anyone from what they were meant to be.
After closely reading all three articles and watching the informational youtube video about "CRISPR", it really made me stop and think for a few minutes on how advanced we are now becoming in technology. To start off, I don't believe "designer babies" will be coming anytime soon, I do believe that the immediate use of CRISPR will be in creating vaccines and getting rid of all malignant birth defects very soon. In my personal opinion I believe that this is a enormous stepping stone in scientific history, that will allow us as human beings to survive longer and become stronger in our world. With the abilities of CRISPR, we will be able to delete all the bad mutations that become peoples nightmares everyday. A good example of this is MYBPC3, a mutation that thickens heart muscle and can lead to sudden death in athletes. The use of CRISPR to change a mutation like this can save lives and eliminate it from our future generations. In all I think that CRISPR is a very good step forward that will allow us to move forward as stronger and healthier humans.
CRISPR is new method of genome editing. To do this genome editing geneticists locate the part of the DNA they want to change, take out, or add something to. Next the guide RNA binds to the specific DNA sequence. Then the Cas9 enzyme binds to the attached RNA and cuts of the targeted part of DNA. This cut is then repaired without the cut out sequence of DNA, resulting in the wanted characteristics. This new technology is being applied for cancer immunotherapy, increasing HIV resistance, and fixing genes in embryos. For example for cancer immunotherapy, U.S. National Institutes of Health developed a genome-scale CRISPR/Cas9 screen that knocked out every single gene in a melanoma cell line and then they tested each gene for its effect on cell immunity responses against the melanoma. With this scientists identified more than 100 genes that were required in the melanoma line for to effectively engage with and kill the cells. In terms of increasing HIV resistance in animals, Chinese researchers have successfully engineered HIV-resistance in mice using CRISPR/Cas9 to replicate a naturally occurring genetic mutation. Their method could eventually help prevent humans from contracting HIV, which currently affects more than 36.7 million people worldwide. used CRISPR/Cas9 to induce a homozygous mutation in a gene called CCR5, which encodes receptors in immune cells. This mutation is shown to prevent HIV from entering cells but only a few people have this mutation naturally. So using CRISPR/Cas9 CCR5 was engrafted into mice, and the result showed that the CCR5 was effective at making T-Cells more resistant to HIV. Lastly, one of the most controversial topics is editing genes of embryos. While CRISPR/Cas9 could be used to remove diseases genes and work as a positive, it could also be used for making a "designer baby". The concern with that is that who decides who or what is or isn't a better baby and where do you draw the line. Personally I believe that CRISPR/Cas9 is the future of health care but needs to be carefully regulated to ensure that it doesn't lead to designer babies.
I do believe that Crispr is the future of healthcare. It can change a gene, editing and altering which can be manipulated to serve a brighter future. This advancement can change diseases as we know it. No more, genetically disadvantaged children, every child can have an equal chance now (genetically to help against diseases). That comes with a great cost, what will stop people from creating designer babies. People altered to match a certain trend, to look a certain way or used for others own good. Imagine being altered to match a trend but you are soon labeled outdated and replaced with better looking babies. These babies are forced to be born against their natural genes altered, it is almost as if babies become an art! Imagine the rich, paying to have better traits and so the rich, start to look different. The world is at a time where people can start to accept themselves and move on, but with this you could be judged for how you look. Imagine going to a job interview and when the interviewer sees you he denies you because you aren't good looking enough, you will lose opportunity to a lot of jobs. I believe that we should use Crispr as it can help and save millions of lives, give chances to people, however I believe that the use of Crispr for the sole purpose of designer babies should be banned and outlawed. We should use it to build our resistance to certain diseases and take out harmful mutations.
I have heard a little bit about CRISPR in the past. At first, I was a bit skeptical of the whole idea of correcting genes in order to alter a baby's appearance or his or her's characteristics. It does not seem ethical at all to create a baby's features based on what a person wants. However, after reading the articles, I realized that CRISPR is capable of more that altering one's appearance. The technology is able to alter disease-related genes and prevent a life of pain and suffering. Further research on the dangers of CRISPR should be done before it becomes commonly used; any risks should be studied and corrected.
I support the use of CRISPR as long as it is not used for immoral reasons. Hopefully, we can understand more about human reproduction and development as CRISPR is further studied and that it can be part of the future of health care.
After watching the video and reading the article, "CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos" I believe CRISPR is the future of health care because of the pros. The video convinced me that diseases like HIV and cancer can be eliminated from your body due to this new technology. In the article, it mentions how it will fix the disease causing mutations in human embryos. It caught my attention that scientists has captured MYBPC3, which is a mutation that causes heart muscle to thicken and lead to sudden death. Also, CRISPR is the first dangerous step to designer babies because the process is similar. If this technology starts to grow in the future we would have unreal people walking around and everything will start to feel fake. CRISPR allows scientists to change mutation anytime and shape the appearance based on how the parent prefer it. However, I still do not understand that why is creating designer babies important? If this happens then the babies in the future will have no gene background like they will look completely different from their parents. I disagree for the fact that it will be use to change someone's look because CRISPR should be used for greater beneficial stuff such as cure a disease completely like HIV, AIDS, and cancer.
CRISPR is a way to change DNA in the most efficient and accurate way possible. It can locate single nucleotides and take them out or insert sequences in specific areas of the gene sequence. It was found in single cell microbes. Humans can have cells go fight off infections but this is impossible for a single cell bacterium. Each time the microbe fights off an infection, it stores a part of the DNA from the virus. This is done by having it in a sequence of RNA and then storing it in a protein called CAS9. This way, it can build it's version of an immune system. If the same virus comes to attack the bacterium again, the DNA of the virus will be cut up. The DNA from the bacterium to create CRSIPR can be implemented in humans. However, for the mutations to be permanent and to be able to go from generation to generation, the mutations must occur in an embryo. With CRISPR, we have the choice to change mutations that are harmful to humans. For example, the MYBPC3 gene was targeted for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In order to avoid this fatal disease, one would need two recessive alleles, because the trait is dominant. CRISPR can edit the MYBPC3 gene, to allow humans to not have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. However with this, two problems arise: unwanted mutations and mosaics. These mutations can beneficial or harmful, and mosaics mean that cells in an embryo have different sets of DNA. I think that CRISPR is the future in healthcare, with this we can alter DNA sequences and avoid our human race to get fatal diseases. However it can be misused, in creating designer babies that appeal to us, especially in appearance.
According to the article "CRISPR Fixes Disease Gene in Viable Human Embryos," scientists were able to use CRISPR technology in order to manipulate a MYBPC3 mutation in order to prevent a baby from having a specific disease. The scientists who completed this however, utilized the mother's DNA as a guideline to correct the mutation. They state that although they were able to fix the gene, they would not be able to add anything that was not already in the baby's DNA, therefore supporting that this would not lead to the practice of creating designer babies. Through this technique, parents will not be able to "add" features in their children that they find desirable. As of now, this technology is not leading us in the direction of the unethical creation of designer babies, but scientists should not get carried away with or misuse genetic manipulation. CRISPR technology has the potential to be the future of genetic disease protection, as long as scientists and researchers have good intentions for the practice.
I have not heard of CRISPR before watching the video. The video seemed to paint bioengineering as beneficial, testing for cancer genes and indicating HIV fragments in the early stages of embryo development. Futurism’s article supported this even further by explaining how Chinese researchers are working to make cells immune to HIV. At first they planned to induce a homozygous mutation in the CCR5 gene, which encodes receptors in immune cells. Mutating this gene can prevent HIV from entering cells, however is only applicable to people who have it naturally. CRISPR, on the other hand, is more effective at editing CCR5 and making T-cells more resistant to the virus. CRISPR has high levels of efficiency on editing specific cells which makes it so crucial for viruses such as HIV, to develop future immunity to the virus, eventually leading to the virus’ extinction.
I can see where CRISPR can lead to an army of “designer babies”, but our technology is still in the beginning phase. CRISPR is more essential to cure HIV and cancer, at the moment. The Nature article agrees that designer babies are not a major concern. When researchers provided a DNA strand as a template to rewrite a mutation, the embryos used the mothers DNA strand instead. This proves that scientists can't always add DNA fragments that were not already in the embryo’s genetics. Once CRISPR is available to everyone and has the capabilities to engineer an embryo’s physical characteristics, then the discussion should change, but for now I see CRISPR helping cure millions of people around the world and providing means to make viruses extinct.
After reading the third article, I have learned that CRISPR is being used to induce a mutation to make cells immune to the HIV virus. These scientists are using CRISPR in editing CCR5, and is considered "the most effective gene-editing tool available." From everything I have heard about CRISPR in this article, I believe this tenchnique can only do well for people with HIV, especially because HIV is taking as many as 36.7 million people in the world. Even though it is not a complete cure, I think it's a very big step towards that. It's understandable to be against CRISPR and it's gene-editing properties, especially if you are someone very strongly against changing what God has intended, but I believe as the world changes and advances, people should too or we will get left behind.
According to what I read in the article "CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos," CRISPR is a technique that scientists can use to correct mutations. This seems to be the start of health care in the future. This technology is tool for editing genomes. Using CRISPR researchers can change DNA sequences and adjust gene function. This can help correct gene defects and the spreading of diseases. The article states, "Work is also under way in Sweden and the United Kingdom to use the technique to study the early stages of human embryo development." This means that this technique is being used for reasons other then gene editing. It is also being used to understand the development of biology. Researchers can use CRISPR for a better understanding of how embryos develop, and how to make gene changes in a safe and efficient way. Although the US does not fund for human research, it is not against the law of the donors are private. On the other hand, the US National Academics of Science, Engineering, and Medicine supports the research that scientists are doing on modifying genes in human embryos. They believe that if this technique ends up being successful, it will benefit the lives of many new children and families.
There are concerns of the CRISPR technology potentially creating 'designer babies'. Looking at the given articles and the video and other additional sources, the understated fact is that CRISPR-Cas9 doesn't use the inserted gene template, but rather corrects the bad gene in one reproductive cell by eliminating any abnormalities the other cell doesn't have. The DNA binds together without any need of external assistance. Given this piece of information, not only are we in the experimental stage, we are practically in a primitive age of this technology as designer babies are not even possible yet and just might never be given the complexity of it. However, I've always personally been mindful of similar technology that could save millions of lives such as those preventing heart diseases and more. We are still living in an overpopulated world and as unusual as it sounds to prevent such technology from being practical in health care, it could be the future of GMOs in food quality and more yield per stock, or more importantly a larger consumption of carbon gases. This potentially solves much of our overpopulated issue.
As of now, I think that CRISPR has lots of potential to become the ultimate tool in the healthcare industry. With CRISPR, specific stretches of genetic code can be targeted to be either edited or removed. This tool has the ability to remove the entire idea of natural selection. Natural selection is the way in which nature controls what traits get passed on to future generations. Since natural selection and survival of the fittest go hand in hand, this was how all organisms evolved. For example, if a lion was born with a mutation which made its muscles stronger, than more often than not this trait would be passed on. With CRISPR, we remove natural selection because humans are in control of which genes are edited. We also remove random mutation because we can control what we change. That being said I am very optimistic about the future of CRISPR. The three articles explained to me that CRISPR is already being used to combat cancer, HIV, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The possibilities that this tool has is mind blowing to me in the sense that CRISPR can be used to eliminate all genetic diseases. We now can also add cancer hunting genes with relative ease. Those are the reasons why I think that CRISPR is the future of health care. CRISPR can also potentially be used to create designer babies. I think that the idea of designer babies is inevitable. Sooner or later someone will create the perfect human. I personally am opposed to this because I think that parents should not be able to choose what traits they want to see in their baby.
The CRISPR has the potential to be the future of health care but at the same time, be a threat to the future of society with designer babies. CRISPR is a genome editing tool that can alter nucleotide sequences in a person’s cells. The beauty of the CRISPR is that it has the ability to eliminate inherited diseases in babies before they are born, which will allow them to live a healthier life. If the world is able to use this technology for this purpose, the life expectancy of humans will increase due to CRISPR’s ability in saving people from genetic disease and modifying human genes to make them the better fit for the environment. However, the big issue that the CRISPR entails is the risk of recreational uses in creating designer babies. This process may have economic potential in creating more jobs in the health care industry but the future of humanity is at risk of the lack of diversity in human appearance. Soon, mothers and fathers will have the opportunity to buy traits that are favorable to them such as a certain hair/eye color, height preference, and strength. With the influence of the media on people trying to look perfect, there will be a lack of individuality in people if they were to all look the same. My solution to this risk that the CRISPR will bring is to create laws and regulations on businesses in health care industry to operate under. This will limit the setbacks that this great tool has to offer and will protect the future of humanity.
After watching the video and reading the article,"CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos," I believe that CRISPR is the future of health care, but can be a first step towards designer babies if we are not careful. CRISPR is a very exciting discovery because it will enable us to conquer many diseases thought to be incurable, such as cancer. If we can master the use of CRISPR, we can modify certain genes to be "cancer-hunting," to drastically decrease that chance of a cell becoming rogue. However, the use of this technology can lead to parents modifying their babies genetically to suit their needs. For example, the parents may want the child to have blonde hair instead of black hair or the child to become muscular. These "designer babies" are a major ethnically concern for many as we are "playing god." There are certain risks to editing genes. There is the risk of making off-target mutations, or additional, unwanted genetic changes and the risk of generating mosaics, where different cells in the embryo contain different genetic sequences. Shoukhrat Mitalipov's team made safety measures against this. To prevent off-target mutations from accumulating, his team injected the Cas9 protein directly into the cells, the protein degrades faster than the DNA, so has less time to cut DNA. The team tried to reduce the risk of mosaics by infecting CRISPR-Cas9 into the egg the same time they injected it in to the sperm. Mitalipov's group tested 58 embryos, out of that 42 were successful and only one was a mosaic. Also, his team found out that you can't add things that weren't already there, which may lead to the conclusion that designer babies are not possible.
CRISPR is a revolutionary scientific discovery that will shape the future of medicine and biology. It is capable of editing whole strands of nucleotides and replacing them with new ones, or fixing harmful mutations. This technology will open the doors for more advanced forms of genetic engineering, in both livestock and humans. CRISPR can help to identify genes that cause different diseases and genes that help to combat them, including cancer. This technology can help humans and non-human animals alike become more resistant to genetic disease. While it is definitely a fantastic concept, we have to be ethical in the ways we use it. While there is no ethical handbook for scientific research, we have to be cautious with how the technology is used. Designer babies are one scientific and ethical concern that many people have. I personally believe that parents are responsible to do what's best for their child, like using CRISPR technology to eliminate genetic diseases before the baby is born. People still have issues with choosing genes for the future generations, but how the technology can be used on children is up to the parents. CRISPR is, all in all, an exciting new technology that can create a future of healthy and genetically evolved generations.
CRISPR is a genome editing tool that can help us in various processes. CRISPR can be handy in curing HIV and cancer diseases. CRISPR will be able to fix many problems in the future. CRISPR will put an end to all of the diseases we currently have. The problem is that people will exploit CRISPR to create babies with desired traits. Instead we should use this CRISPR technology to make people imune to diseases. CRISPR can assist the future humans so it should be used and developed furthermore.
After watching the video and reading the articles, I can see that CRISPR is the future of healthcare. It is able to alter genes and eliminate diseases such as HIV and cancer. I used to be against these advancements, because I thought people would just use CRISPR to make designer babies. But now, the pros outweigh this con for me, as it will improve and save the lives of many people. Also, there is no clear path to designing a baby yet, because "the embryos did not use the template the researchers provided." Basically this means that, it may not be possible to add things that weren't already there.
After watching the video and reading the articles I believe that CRISPR is the future of health care. There are many pros that outweigh the few cons. For example with the worry of the rich designing babies, I do not think that designer babies would appear in the near future. This technology is first and foremost being used to correct life threatening diseases, and could yield very promising results in the future. CRISPR may not be perfect but if it were to be studied and practiced throughout the next few years, we could see a new generation of kids that are immune to diseases such as MYBPC3. The fact that our lifespan was able to double in the last 100 years shows that there is potential to extend the human lifespan even further if we are able to eliminate diseases such as cancer and HIV that cut many lives short. Scientists can combat the worry of designer babies by simply only allowing the altering genes to improve health, and not appearance. CRISPR has huge potential, and if used correctly can have an extremely positive effect on the world.
After watching the video and reading the articles, I think that CRISPR is a huge stride in the future of health care, yet also veering dangerously close to opening the door for designer babies. CRISPR is, as of today, the most efficient and effective way to alter DNA. The CAS9 enzyme binds to RNA and alters the specific part of the original DNA sequence. This fairly simple practice is paving the way to eradicate disease and prevent deaths that were completely preventable. The use of this technology has engineered HIV resistance in mice by replacing the genetic mutation, and could eventually do the same in humans. A CRISPR screen has proven effective in wiping out every gene in a melanoma cell line and improving cancer immunotherapy.
The video mentioned that we're living in a world where more people die from having too much food than too little; in just a few generations, life expectancy has doubled. Science and technology have done a lot of good in the world we live in, but they also have the dangerous potential to do a lot of harm. The same technology that is making strides in preventing HIV and combating cancer can be used to make genetically engineered babies. Ethics play a huge part in deciding who should have access to this technology and for what purpose. Fortunately, the threat is still small, but CRISPR in the wrong hands can be just as much of a hinderance to evolution as it is the future of health care.
I don’t think a gene editing technique called CRISPR should be used to make the aesthetically “perfect” baby. Instead, serious life-threatening diseases like HIV and cancer should be treated to prevent further loss of life. After reading the three articles, I can conclude that with further research and experimentation, CRISPR is a great genome editing tool and is the future of health care. However, CRISPR must be used carefully. In order to prevent improper usage of genome editing, doctors should only offer this gene editing technique to parents of children who will have a disease, not for aesthetic enhancing qualities. If CRISPR is used to create “designer babies”, parents will make decisions for their children, possibly overpopulating the world with only one ‘version.’ For example, parents may only prefer children that are strong and highly intelligent. What parents may see as “perfect” may not be perfect in their child’s eyes. Also, CRISPR will most likely cost a lot of money. This will prevent many people from choosing how their child will look like or any diseases it may encounter in its life. If used correctly, CRISPR can help prevent diseases and change many lives.
CRISPR is undoubtedly a striking piec of technology that has several benefits and change how many disease can be treated. CRISPR is a genetic engineering tool that is used to edit base pairs of a gene by removing or inserting sequences in a targeted area. CRISPR has been a success in many cases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy where the MYBPC3 gene was targeted. While there are benefits of CRISPR, it also poses a risk of unwanted genetic mutations and create mosaics where different cells in the embryo has different genetic sequences. But as studies continue the rate of mosaics is low and genetic changes are efficient. However, these advancements can lead to the the technology being misused and the eventually the creation of designer babies. People can use abuse the ability to change traits for the wrong reasons. Personally, I believe CRISPIR is the future of healthcare as it can revolutionize cures of medical diseases and outweighs the cons.
It is quite remarkable that scientists have discovered ways to alter the receptors of the cells in order to create immunity to such an influential ailment such as HIV. Despite the fact that this technology has the potential to be abused and induce cosmetic benefits to embryos, it is definitely worth to introduce this method of cure to the public and start implementing it in order to cure diseases like HIV, as it could definitely save the lives of millions. It is also very cool how CRISPR can be used to identify genes that allow for cancerous cells to develop resistance to T cells. This can allow scientists to focus specifically on the barrier that is causing us from overcoming cancer and potentially help humans defeat it. Also, with CRISPR allowing genetic mutations to be rectified, there are so many possibilities in sight for healthcare. Humans can eventually reach a <1% infant mortality rate and maybe even extend the human lifespan.
After reading the first few lines of "CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos," I strongly disagreed with the idea of genome editing. People were created a certain way to be different from everyone else. However, as I continued to read the article, I soon came to realize that genome editing can be used for good, "to correct disease-causing mutations in human embryos". Thinking of the fact that babies can be significantly healthier and happier with CRISPR, helped me realize how it can be the future of healthcare. As scientists discover more ways to change a person's identity, it may lead to the development of designer babies. There are so many people who want different colored eyes, different colored skin, or a different texture of hair for their baby, and CRISPR can help advance this. Although the end of the article "CRISPR fixed disease gene in viable human embryos" states that the genome editing of embryos will not lead to a future of designer babies, I still think there is the question of ethics in play. Changing the genome of a human who was destined to be a certain way is toying with destiny; personally, I believe that not giving the embryo a say in their life violates their natural born human rights. On the other hand, I understand that CRISPR can save so many lives, so I have a conflicted view. However, I conclude that CRISPR may lead to designer babies.
The evolution potential CRISPR brings to the human race is truly amazing. It used to be unthinkable to change or cut out exact segments of a DNA sequence. With CRISPR scientists have done the unthinkable. CRISPR is a technology that edits the DNA sequence, but gene editing would not occur without the protein Cas9. Cas9 identifies the base sequence that corresponds with CRISPR and cuts it out of the DNA. Base pairs can be entirely cut out, or whole new base sequences can be added in it's place. This is an amazing solution to genetic diseases, such as cancers and HIV.
However, changing certain traits are not ethical. By creating 'designer babies' people are creating "perfect" children. Parents are hand picking certain traits such as height, hair color, skin color, and eye color. To me it's similar to picking your child from a catalog. Another issue would be death rates would drastically decrease. Although this sounds horrible, saving lives would increase the population by a lot. By having such a large population, all resources will be used much faster. The only solution for this would be to also decrease birth rates, in other words woman would need to have less children.
I do believe CRISPR is the future of healthcare. Already it has impacted the medical world in so many ways as discussed in the first article. It can alter disease related genes in human embryos to prevent conditions like MYBPC3. I think this will be used in the near future to prevent disease related genes and is a huge step in our technology. As for "designer babies," although this may take a while to become possible, it is a controversial topic. This can be a dangerous step for society because it focuses on changing yourself physically. This technology is an amazing advancement for us but can be misused.
I was not familiar with CRISPR before today. However after researching it, I see how people both believe it could better and harm the future of society. On one hand there are studies that show the positive outcomes of editing embryos, such as MYBPC3 gene that causes premature death of athletes. In China CRISPR is even being researched in relations with HIV. With this scientific discovery in the future, experts might be able to cure genetic disorders in embryos.
On the other hand, this scientific breakthrough could backfire in a big way. For example, an effect of CRISPR could be the creations of mosaics in the DNA. Mosaics are mutations that happen when other genes are affected. Also, in the future, CRISPR could be used to change unharmful genes with no good reason. Overall, I believe CRISPR could be the next big step in scientific discoveries if kept to reasonable purposes.
As per the video, CRISPR is a technology used by scientists to edit a gene sequence. It can cause a point mutation without causing harm to any of the other nucleotides. I believe that CRISPR can be used to better the future of society. I read the article "Researchers Used CRISPR to Successfully Increase HIV Resistance in Animals" and I was impressed with what I read. Scientists at the Peking University Stem Cell Research Center were able to use CRISPR and Cas9 to cause a mutation the the genome that produces CCR5. CCR5 makes receptors in immune cells. In other words, it allows a cell to be immune to HIV. These mutated cells were then put into mice and there was no sign of HIV. The article continues to explain that this tool can be used to fix disorders in human embryos and also bring back extinct species. I believe that this technology is the future of society since 36.7 million people are impacted by HIV, and if there is now somewhat of a cure, it would benefit the world.
CRISPR is a technology that can be used to edit genomes in order to change or replicate certain traits. I believe that this method can become the future of healthcare. After reading the article about CRISPR fixing diseases in embryos, I was very impressed. I hope that scientists can fix the errors mentioned in the article because after future experimentation, I think that it should be used globally as it has the potential to eliminate incurable diseases and conditions that have been around for many years. As for the creation of designer babies, I don't doubt that many people would try to use this technology for unnecessary purposes. CRISPR was not designed to make designer babies.
I have heard about CRISPR before, but did not quite understand it until I had watched the video. According to this video CRISPR uses an enzyme CAS9 and a guiding RNA sample of an embryo's genetic code to precisely and exactly rewrite a sequence of nucleotides to change DNA. This technology can prevent disease, mainly; however the big debate about the usage of CRISPR is for a much more interesting usage. The development of the "designer baby".
An article by Nature speaks of a team of researchers that have used CRISPR on 58 embryos. The main purpose was not to create a "designer baby", but to test for off-target mutations and mosaics. The team concluded that there were no visible off-target mutations, which could possibly change other portions of the DNA sequence, leading to development issues, and there was only 1 mosaic case out of the 58. CRISPR has important uses outside of creating the perfect baby, though.
Futurism posted an article reporting that a team of researchers for the Peking University Stem Cell Research Center used CRISPR to make animals genetically resistant to HIV, which is supposedly one of the harder diseases to treat in humans. The team targeted the gene CCR5, which encodes T-cells (immunity cells that find and kill cancer cells and other foreign bodies) and made them much more powerful to prevent HIV. This technique would soon be very useful to treat cancer patients and other terminally ill people. CRISPR-CAS9 is the new frontier in the fight against disease.
The gene editing process known as CRISPR/Cas-9 has been the center of a recent study done by a team of researchers. The technique was used to correct a disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common cause of death in young athletes, in viable human embryos by targeting a mutation in the gene MYBPC3. Previously, scientists were hesitant to use CRISPR because of the risks unwanted genetic changes or mutations, or the risk of generating mosaics, which occurs when different cells in the embryo contain different genetic sequences. However, researchers of this study found no evidence of off-target mutations and observed only one case of generating a mosaic out of the 58 embryos. CRISPR may also offer some promise in the ongoing search for a cure for cancer. One of the existing treatments for cancer is immunotherapy, where T-cells are used to target and kill cancer cells within a tumor. CRISPR can be used to identify the reason why immunotherapy may not work on some cancer patients by screening each gene in a melanoma cell line and testing their effect on how the melanoma cells respond to T-cells. Scientists were able to identify more than a 100 genes that are essential for the T-cells to work effectively in immunotherapy. Not only can CRISPR/Cas-9 aid cancer research, but it has led to a huge advancement in HIV research. Researchers in China were able to use CRISPR on mice to replicate a naturally occurring genetic mutation in the gene CCR5. This mutation allows for the immune cells in the mice to be resistant to HIV; this method could possibly be used on humans in the future. Though CRISPR/Cas-9 may also lead to the concept of “designer babies”, this method has the power to cure life-threatening diseases. For this reason, I believe scientists should continue to study and better the CRISPR/Cas-9 method.
After reading about Crispr and watching the video, I'm in awe at the fact that so many people, so many intelligent people, share the intent to fix genetic abnormalities and even work within this route. First off, as I've mentioned before in previous comments, our community is soon to be at risk of overpopulation. I'm completely against the work of the scientists in this field, because rather than being the future of healthcare, it is going to be the faster route to absolute global desolation. It's very upsetting to know that so many people suffer from HIV and Cancer, and these two areas, can arguably be fields where it would be okay to genetically repair any issues in a person's body.The only problem is that gaining an understanding on how to do this opens up the field to design, change, and repair any existing issue or disliking in a body, or a baby. Natural selection doesn't just improve the state of humans at every birth. People fail to remember that timely selection, comes with the cost of many lives, and many members who are going to be inferior and die off. In other words, for our bodies to become naturally selected, we will go through generations without any selection, within an unfavorable state. It's just how evolution is meant to work. Now if we start to continuously enhance who we are, which is obviously going to become a desire for many scientists if this field of work is further developed, then the art of evolution will be manipulated. It will lead to further population growth, burn our resources, and bring environmental havoc and harder lives for those in developing nations and in poor living stances. The work of Crispr is definitely to be respected in the area of Cancer reduction and HIV reduction, but I can't ever support it because it will lead to a dangerous understanding of the body, which will lead to genetic manipulation for areas that should be simply left alone. As so many articles have been about, science is controversial. What we do with science changes our future, but regions like human development, birth, and evolution need to be completely isolated from the work we do. This type of work will only increase the chance of designer babies, increase the likeliness of having the human body be changed for favorable conditions, and increase our population rate.
I had first of this revolutionary invention of CRISPR last year through the unit of Biotechnology in Honors Biology. I was highly intrigued to learn about a tool that could a pinpoint a specific DNA sequence, even down to a nucleotide base and alter it. After reading the 3 article and viewing the video, I am controversial to this topic as it presents both pros and cons. However, after further evaluating CRISPR, CRISPR could serve as the future of health care. After specifically reading "Researchers Used CRISPR to Successfully Increase HIV Resistance in Animals", I realized that CRISPR could be the next breakthrough in medicine and biology. This genome-editing tool can help cure several deadly diseases such as HIV or sickle cell anemia. Going back to a Honors Biology, we had a debate whether CRISPR should be used to develop designer babies. Designer babies are not ethical because people would be creating their ideal view of a "perfect" child with no diseases and a baby with every superior trait. Eventually, this could also create a drift and barrier between the superior, ideal children and the "sick, different" children. Today's views in society of an ideal baby is generally the same, so diversity in society would essentially be nonexistent. However, CRISPR's benefits , as many people had stated, 'outweigh the cons'.
After reading the articles and watching the videos, I went from being completely unfamiliar with CRISPR to being even more eager to learn more about it. There are other technologies that I have heard of that accomplish the similar task which is to alter genes in humans and animals, but this is a little different and goes to a more critical extent. With the information provided and despite the hazards of applying this gene, I would say that CRISPR is the future of health care. However, it shouldn't be used in a negative and unnecessary way that is to modify genes without having a problem. Like the “CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos” article says, the main cause for the use of CRISPR is to delete disease causing mutations and replace them with other genes using the Cas9 protein. Of course there are always risks involved when performing this bit it depends on the original DNA. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, caused by one dominant gene (MYBCP3) is causing athletes’ deaths. Researchers took a step forward to look into this mutation. Furthermore, according the the Futurism article, CRISPR found another success which is that it aided in higher HIV resistance. This is what is meant when said that CRISPR is the future of health care, worldwide.
Today I decided to read the article, "CRISPR Fixes Disease Gene in Viable Human Embryos." This article was mainly about how the new technology, CRISPR-Cas9, could help remove future harmful parts of DNA in embryos. Personally, I do not agree with the use of this technology for the exact reason of "designer babies." With CRISPR available, it offers a huge advantage for certain parents. They have the opportunities to select their desired traits and give them to their children. The reason I believe this is bad is because if the technology is set at a certain price that is affordable for some and not for others, it would be unfair for certain families. Another reason why CRISPR should not be allowed is because I believe that humans should never be an experiment subject. This technology allows for humans to be test subjects and experimented on, which is inhumane and wrong. Lastly, there is possibility for harmful affects in embryos and DNA. Scientists could easily make mistakes with CRISPR and it should not be allowed to be used now, or ever in the future.
CRISPR is an amazing improvement in science. It is remarkable that scientists have possibly found a way to finally fight against HIV, which is an illness that is affecting millions of people worldwide. According to "Researchers Used CRISPR to Successfully Increase HIV Resistance in Animals", it is difficult to cure HIV because the HIV virus has the ability to hide in latent reservoirs. Since finding a cure to cure HIV has proven difficult, scientists are taking a new approach to finally defeat HIV. The solution, according to the article, is making the cells in body immune to the virus. Scientists are trying to use CRISPR Cas9 to initiate a homozygous mutation that manufactures CCR5, that encodes receptors in cells that are immune. As a result, the cells that have the mutation will be immune to HIV. This is really a major breakthrough in the world of science. Based on what I know about CRISPR, it can be used to accomplish many great things in the world of genetics. It can help solve many of the problems we have, especially with diseases. Millions of people could be cured of the diseases that they are currently fighting. However, everything good also has a bad side which is why we need to create a balance using this new technology that we have developed. As humans, we need to place a limit on how far we have to go in using CRISPR and other improvements that may come after. We should always weigh in the consequences of our actions into whatever we do, and always look into how it can affect the future. As science is improving, we basically need to consider the positives and the negatives that go with it. CRISPR really is an amazing technology that has potential to do great things for us.
After reading the article, " CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos," I was socked ty scientists may actually be able to cure diseases through gene mutations. As scientists use CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, allowing them to make changes to genomes, they may be able to cure diseases. For example, after scientists studied the MYBPC3 mutation, a mutation that causes such disease such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy( a disease that causes the heart muscle to thicken), they may be able to prevent this disease from occuring, which may save the lives of many. This study allowed for scientists to further expand their study, as they realized that this gene mutations may also allow for them to add additional unwanted genetic changes to ones baby. In order to test this, scientists "provided s strand of DNA to serve as a template for rewriting the disease causing mutation," but the embryos followed to mothers DNA as opposed to using the template, allowing for them to conclude that designer babies may not be possible due to the fact that they cannot add anything to the babies DNA that was not already there. Gene editing may lead to extraordinary cures as scientists have just began to discover it, and it may be the next big thing to curing other harmful diseases as well.
Before watching this video and reading these articles I was not totally familiar with CRISPR. I now know CRISPR is a new method designed to manipulate genes in favorable ways. I believe that that this method can be used in a many helpful ways, such as curing major diseases like cancer and HIV. In my opinion, CRISPR can be beneficial. Since a large portion of the population suffers from some type of disease, this new method can aid or cure them. However, I feel that CRISPR should only be used for helping people who need this, rather than editing genes to make a person physically attractive. I feel this advancement in technology and science should not be wasted by using it on physical features.
After watching the video and reading the articles about CRISPR, I can understand more deeply the gene editing technique scientists are using to correct disease-causing mutations in the human genome. With more and more development, private donors are willing to sponsor these experiments. With this, the precision and success rate of this gene editing technique has increased. Aware of the rapid pace of this growing field of biotechnology, the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine put out the green light for these studies to proceed. China has taken off with this idea of gene editing and even has applied it to human embroyos while Sweden and the UK are using this technique to better understand the embroyo development; whereas, the United States are proceeding with caution. Scientists like Keith Joung and Robin Lovell-Badge have voiced their concerns for off-target cutting, developing mosaics (scenarios in which different cells in the embroyo have different genomes), and the ethics regarding a future where making "designer babies" is possible with CRISPR. Despite its increased effiency, there needs to be more research done before CRISPR can be used clinically. Rules and regulations should be set into place to allow scientists to use CRISPR to devlop vaccines and cure cancer and HIV, yet also provide limits to how far "designer babies" can go.
I think CRISPR is definitely the future of designer babies. I think it is ridiculous to be able to choose what your baby looks like. I also think that people would choose the features that are society’s version of “perfect”. Traits such as brown eyes might even eventually go extinct because society tends to favor blue or green eyes. I believe that CRISPR is taking advantage of science and modern technology. This new type of science is opening up opportunities that are encouraging society to do very unnatural occurrences.
When it comes downs to it, the topic regarding designer babies is extremely controversial and debatable. Based on the video, CRISPR-Cas9 is a new tool able to mutate strands of DNA with preciseness. In designer babies, this type of technology is now able to mutate certain genes responsible for certain traits (eye color, hair, skin, etc.). Although this is a giant leap for humanity in terms of evolution and selection, I personally do not agree with to these methods. I believe that an individual should let evolution and natural selection play out by itself without altering any factors associated with them. For example, even if the new generation of designer babies were immune to HIV, they are more prone to other diseases and in the future, it could eventually affect their lives and health. Although many have mixed opinions on this topic, I choose to side with, in my eyes, the more reasonable side in the topic of designer babies.
Though there is a potential to further the creation of designer babies through this science, CRISPR allows so much more which can help more important cases and diseases. Already, CRISPR has proven to be of much use against HIV in animals, something that can transcend to humans and be extremely useful for our society. By causing the homozygous mutation in the CCR5, which is very rarely caused naturally, CRISPR allowed the T-cells, in the mice at least, to be more resistant to the HIV virus and on top of that was highly efficient in transferring the cells, helping humanity if it pans out. HIV is not the only major disease being fought by the CRISPR technique as cancer research has used the system in their studies. It helps to identify the genes that are being affected and/or affecting others in relation to cancer. The rest of the article with information behind CRISPR and cancer was a little hard to follow from them in but other articles and videos, like the one posted on this page, indicate that CRISPR is helping further the research for immunity against cancer. The CRISPR system being used is also constantly being improved and Shoukhrat Milalipov, a reproductive-biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, has helped CRISPR become even safer by injecting the Cas9 protein, the enzyme that the system needs to work, by itself into the cells. Since the protein ends up degrading faster than the DNA, causing only a small amount of time for unexpected mutations to happen. The amount of developments made with CRISPR is remarkable and to not continue the research because people are more concerned about designer babies opposed to resistance against HIVs and cancer is even more remarkable.
After thinking about the information given to us in the video and the articles, I came to a personal conclusion that CRISPR is going to be the future of healthcare. As shown in the information given, CRISPR has the capabilities to not only help humans, but other animals as well. I can understand why some people may not want human embryos to be genetically modified, but I believe that if used the right way, it could be a huge advancement for the human race. For example, if it is used just to prevent genetic disorders and diseases, then it would be something I hope is supported in full. Being used this way, however, could cause an overflow of humans on the planet due to higher survival rates. Now this doesn't directly relate to CRISPR technologies, but when thinking, I thought of this potential outcome for the human race. All in all, I believe that CRISPR is a great advancement for the human race.
After reading about CRISPR, I am still unsure about weather or not I believe it should be the future of health care. The method is extremely appealing in the sense that it has the possibility to prevent life-threatening diseases from being passed on genetically, and can help us with issues like cancer. But, the fact that we may now be able customize our babies, increase their immunity, and change their lives from what it was originally meant to be, seems like we have found a major way to defy natural selection. I do not see anything wrong with saving a baby's life with CRISPR if a dangerous gene is identified to be in them. But making designer babies, choosing their strengths, and trying to make them "perfect," feels very wrong because not only is it unfair to those who cannot afford it, but it is also unnatural. If CRISPR is to be used, I believe it should only be used to treat patients who require this method for survival. But, I do not believe it should be the method of creating designer babies for it can only lead to dangerous competition, unnatural beings, and the misuse of the power of CRISPR.
According to the video, CRISPR is a new method used to genetically modify embryos. Its sole purpose is to alter the DNA in organisms that carry genetic diseases. The thing is, however, that some organizations intend to use this method to create "designer babies", which are organisms that are modified in the embryo so that they could have certain traits. This is a major issue because it could create a social gap in society, scientists don't know how they will impact the gene pool, and babies are being genetically modified without their own consent. For this reason, the uses of CRISPR should be limited to altering DNA to get rid of genetic diseases. If this is followed, then many diseases can be gotten rid of, and more people will survive. For example, scientists successfully found a way to limit the acquiring of HIV in animals. They may have not been able to find a way to get rid of it completely, but this discovery is still a huge step in science. I personally believe that since this technology is so new, scientists and organizations should refrain from using this method on patients unless it is absolutely necessary.
CRISPR has amazing possibilities, which includes the possibilities to rid future generations of life-threatening diseases. However, this brings up the possibility of ‘designer babies’—babies who have different or enhanced traits than the ones they were supposed to have. The article “CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos” explains how CRISPR works and the potential problems and safety measures that accompany the process. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing is a technique that allows scientists to make precise changes to genomes. “…the risk of making additional, unwanted genetic changes and the risk of generating mosaics — in which different cells in the embryo contain different genetic sequences. The researchers say that they have found no evidence of off-target genetic changes, and generated only a single mosaic in an experiment involving 58 embryos.” Obviously, there are risks involved in CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, researchers didn’t note any in this experiment. Additionally, something that is interesting to note is that Mitalipov’s team provided a strand of DNA as a template for rewriting the disease-causing mutations. However, embryos used the mother’s DNA as a guide to repair the MYBPC3 mutation carried by the father’s sperm. This means that you can’t add any traits that aren’t already present. Another article, “Researchers used CRISPR to Successfully Increase HIV Resistance in HIV,” uses CRISPR to induce a homozygous mutation in a gene called CCR5, which encodes receptors in immune cells. Overall, I believe that CRISPR has the potential to rid our world of previously unbeatable diseases. While designer babies and potential problems may be a risk, there is no definite proof of either of those existing.
Before watching the video or reading the articles, I was unfamiliar with the topic of CRISPR. At first I was really intrigued to learn that we are that scientifically advanced to be able to manipulate strands of DNA with such precision and accuracy. Its still hard to wrap my head around the fact that something like this is possible. I strongly believe that CRISPR is the future of health care. It is a feasible solution to many diseases and some genetic disorders such as HIV. Accordiny yo the "CRISPR Fixed Disease Gene in Viable Human Embryos," scientists used CRISPR to manipulate a MYBPC3 mutation. This prevented a baby from having a disease. It is definitely unethical to alter a baby's features based on what a person or society wants. However, I do not think that will be a problem anytime soon because the technology is still in the beginning phase. The Nature article agrees. When rewriting a mutation, researchers provided a DNA strand as a template. However, the embryos used the mothers DNA strand. This shows that scientists are not capable of always just adding DNA fragments. As of now CRISPR is going in the right direction as it has the potential to cure thousands of people worldwide. However, scientists should still be careful and make sure they do not misuse the new technology available to them.
While new discoveries and inventions, like CRISPR, are important and benefit the human race, they also have a dangerous side to them. I think that every new advancement needs to have someone looking over it, or rules to follow while using it. I think that CRISPR is the future of health care, but can also be the dangerous first step to designer babies. If the use of CRISPR is not supervised, it can be used to create designer babies. Then again, there is the controversy over knowing what’s ethically right and what’s ethically wrong. Why is something considered ethically wrong? Is it really wrong if its based on opinions? At what point is the use of CRISPR “abuse” instead of “using for the benefit of the baby”? The lines separating right and wrong are blurry because CRISPR is new to us humans, and I think that defining what is right and wrong, though not easy, must be done.
My brother is molecular biologist and works in genetics, and I thought he was the good guy, but after reading about CRISPR, I feel they are playing God. Babies are suppose to come out the way they were made. Although it is good that they are getting rid of a heart disease that kills young athletes and finding new ways to beat cancer. I still find that from a religious standpoint that they are messing around where they don't belong. Also speaking as someone this technology could help I still disagree with it. Even if as an embryo scientists could have prevented me from getting diabetes or CRPS, I would not have wanted it because them I wouldn't be me. I feel that technology like CRISPR is prohibiting kids from becoming who they were meant to be.
Before watching the video and reading the articles, I had no idea what CRISPR was and have never even heard of it. After all of my research, I was amazed at this new technology that we have created. I would have never even fathomed that something like this could be real. CRISPR is a newly developed method, discovered in 2012 to allow scientists to manipulate DNA in a way that would allow us to pick and choose certain characteristics for our offsprings. CRISPR is an outstanding new invention that can lead to many great things, such as picking out the harmful genes in someone's DNA. But, I fear that it will eventually be used for the wrong reasons. I believe eventually people will use this to create designer babies and use them to their advantage. CRISPR can either be great for the future of healthcare, or the exact opposite. Unfortunately, I believe that CRISPR will be used to create designer babies.
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