Ford Neild March 1st, 2016
Current Event 13 Review
Palca, Joe. "Gene Editing Tool Hailed As A Breakthrough, And It Really Is One." NPR. NPR, 28 Dec. 2015. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.
This article, "Gene Editing Tool Hailed As A Breakthrough, And It Really Is One," by Joe Palca, summarizes the new and exciting scientific prospects made possible by CRISPR. CRISPR is a process that has simplified and advanced the way we edit genomes today. Palca acknowledges that despite all of the positive feedback CRISPR is getting, there is some ethical concern as to the potential uses of the powerful new ability. Concerned individuals fear that scientists may abuse the ability to cut out and replace unwanted genes in order to create the infamous “designer babies.” Despite these concerns, Palca’s own interactions with scientists has him convinced that creating designer babies is far from priority one for the curiosity-driven researchers. palca then proceeds to give several example of how CRISPR has positively impacted the work of scientist in several different fields. Christopher Allen, a researcher in the field of oncology and radiology claims that CRISPR allows him to create and compare cancer cells with specific genomic differences, providing previously unattainable insight into the genetics of cancerous mutations. Another scientist, Jan Leach, studies diseases in plants and spoke to Palca about the impact CRISPR has had on her work. By modifying the genes that allow plants to fight off fungus and other foreign bodies, she hopes to create new plants that can survive without the use of pesticides. "I've been working in this particular area for over 20 years, and in 20 years I've been able to do [modify] one or two genes," says Allen. "With CRISPR-Cas I'll be able to do [modify] 20 or 30." Palca comments on the immense range of fields that CRISPR has positively affected and expects to see even more changes as a result of this new process of genomic editing.
Clearly, as described by Palca, CRISPR has immense practical use in our society today. Technology is advanced enough today that we are able to detect genetic flaws before birth. Imagine if, using CRISPR, we were able to cure this conditions before the child was even born. Even genetic mutations in living humans today have the potential to be cured. HIV infected cells could have the infectious genetic code cut out and replaced with new clean code. Cancerous mutations could be cut out and replaced. Genetic conditions, such as sickle cell anemia could be fixed to produce normal blood cells. Beyond this however, being able to create specimens with genetic code to one's preference allows for scientist to create and then compare cell cultures with different genes. This allows new advances to be made into fields where genomic editing may not even have a direct effect, but rather indirectly cure the disease by facilitating efficient and fast observation of cell cultures.
Overall this article was very condensed and made a strong argument for the positive effects CRISPR will have in almost every field of relevance. To support his argument he interviewed a number of scientists from completely unrelated fields of science and showed of CRISPR has affected their studies. Palca used several quote to give his article the perspectives of several scientists, adding more credibility and substance to his article. While this article was successful in many areas, I felt that some level of explanation was required as to how CRISPR actually works. As a eager scientist I would have wanted to see how scientists are able to select which genes to cut out and they then proceed to insert different DNA into that segment of code. To the author's credit, making the article more complex by explain the science would have make the article less appealing to minds that were less scientifically inclined. To improve this I would recommend that Palca out in a brief, digestible explanation of the process of CRISPR. All in all, this article was very interesting and made a great case as to how CRISPR will positively impact many scientific fields of study.
Ford,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your review of “Gene Editing Tool Hailed As A Breakthrough, And It Really Is One," by Joe Palca. This article is a very good choice because this is an area of study that has received a lot of focus lately. I liked how you included the specific problems that this new advancement poses and then mentioned how scientists are not even thinking about abusing CRISPR like some are so worried about them doing. I also liked how you quoted specific scientists and their views on how this advancement is beneficial. This makes your article more factual and research based which develops your review into a more accurate and reliable source. I also thought you did a very good job at describing the relevance of this article and the importance of something like this to americans especially with your points on the ability to cure children of diseases before they were even born. This is something that could definitely save a lot of lives or at least make many lives much easier for a large portion of the world population. I liked how you provided background information about what this new advancement is allowing scientists to do that they previously could not. This review was overall very well written and thought out and I thought you did a good job at displaying your thoughts in a descriptive yet concise manner.
I felt that the primary problem with your review was a lack of explanation. You had many good points and presented some facts, but your arguments would have been much stronger if you had provided a brief description of CRISPR and how it works. All of the information that was provided told us that it allowed genetic code to be modified but just as important is what makes that possible. You did reference this problem as one of the actual article as well but you said limited explanation existed and passed on close to no explanation in your review. Another aspect that was detrimental to your review was that your last paragraph feels rushed and contains a few careless errors that leave the reader with a much more negative view of the overall article than the well-edited and thought out first and second paragraphs.
Overall I really enjoyed reading your review and was especially interested by this topic because I think this is going to be used extensively one day to cure the human species of some of the worst diseases. There are so many possible uses for CRISPR it is exciting thinking about what scientists are going to use it for next. To me, one of the most interesting pieces of information in this review was that: CRISPR has had such an immediate beneficial effect for scientists. As one scientist mentioned they are now able to modify about 10 times the amount of genes they previously could.