James Apostolatos 1/25/19
Current Event #14- Review AP Biology
Citation:
Park, Alice. “What Happens to the CRISPR Twins? Their Lives Will Be Forever Changed.”
Park, Alice. “What Happens to the CRISPR Twins? Their Lives Will Be Forever Changed.”
Time, Time, 29 Nov. 2018, time.com/5466967/crispr-twins-lives/.
The first pair of sister twins were born after their genomes were edited while they were embryos, by the genetics tool known as CRISPR. The twin girls, born in Shenzhen, China, are the subject of scientific and public scrutiny for the use of this CRISPR method. The Chinese researcher’s university denied knowledge of his experiment and said that the lead scientist also denied some uses of CRISPR. Claims stated this was unethical and that there were violations in Chinese laws and regulations. Nearly all international genetics groups have guidelines prohibiting using CRISPR to edit human embryos and implanting them for pregnancy, as the Chinese researcher did. Experts fully support using CRISPR in cells that can’t be passed down from generation to generation, like skin cells or blood cells. Because he altered their genomes when they were embryos, those changes were picked up by every new cell that the embryos made as they continued to divide and develop, eventually forming the twins. So when the girls are ready to have children, their eggs may contain the CRISPR edits that he gave them, and they could pass on their altered genes to their children and all future generations of children in their lineage. The article concentrates more on the implications of having genetically modified twins in the world. Although the use of CRISPR was in the hopes of eliminating the gene coding for HIV, it is still too early to see if the experiments were a success and if the chinese scientists were even allowed considering the “ethics” debate explored in this article.
Having the gene itself is not necessarily a bad thing considering they protect people from getting infected with HIV, but the problem is that scientists aren’t convinced yet that the HIV protection will be the only thing the CRISPR edit did to the twins’ genomes. It’s not clear that CRISPR is as precise as researchers would like it to be. This connects to our current society because it begs the question is CRISPR safe to use, and more importantly, is it moral? Although it's true the purpose is to eliminate damaged DNA sequence prone to HIV and other illnesses, many factors need to be considered. CRISPR may make unintended changes in random parts of the genome, like an autocorrect feature that mistakenly corrects typos to produce an entirely different word. In other cases, it may not make the edits as consistently as needed, so some cells may be edited while others are not, and some cells may even be partially edited. This topic is important because it is connected to genetics and DNA. Recent experiments using CRISPR shows the potential to become a method to cure diseases such as HIV. This also changes the world by introducing genetically engineered twins in the world.
Having the gene itself is not necessarily a bad thing considering they protect people from getting infected with HIV, but the problem is that scientists aren’t convinced yet that the HIV protection will be the only thing the CRISPR edit did to the twins’ genomes. It’s not clear that CRISPR is as precise as researchers would like it to be. This connects to our current society because it begs the question is CRISPR safe to use, and more importantly, is it moral? Although it's true the purpose is to eliminate damaged DNA sequence prone to HIV and other illnesses, many factors need to be considered. CRISPR may make unintended changes in random parts of the genome, like an autocorrect feature that mistakenly corrects typos to produce an entirely different word. In other cases, it may not make the edits as consistently as needed, so some cells may be edited while others are not, and some cells may even be partially edited. This topic is important because it is connected to genetics and DNA. Recent experiments using CRISPR shows the potential to become a method to cure diseases such as HIV. This also changes the world by introducing genetically engineered twins in the world.
The article did a good job of showing both the pros and cons of using CRISPR on people. The CRISPR approach is relatively new and scientists are still learning about exactly how precise their edits can be, and what some of the potential negative and long term consequences of altering human DNA could be. The pro being that CRISPR might be able to disable a gene involved in helping HIV to enter healthy cells. One improvement is to give more statistical evidence and to be less opinionated. It might be nice to know the context of the use of CRISPR. The writer also could have emphasize more how the twins were treated. He can improve this by adding more details about the actual method, the researchers used to put the CRISPER in the DNA.Were there any immediate side of effects of CRISPR? Finally, they can discuss the public opinion on genetically engineered people.
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